You may just now be hauling out your Halloween decorations, but it’s never too early to be planning for Christmas — especially if you’re a Hallmark ornament collector!
Which ornament beamed down first this year? It’s the penultimate “Mirror, Mirror” Storyteller character, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott! Following the “Mirror, Mirror” editions of Kirk, Sulu, and Uhura in 2020 — and Spock and Chekov in 2021 — this year completes the set, with the McCoy release planned for October.
I’ve been collecting Star Trek Hallmark ornaments for decades, but what makes this mirror universe set extra special is Hallmark’s radio technology:
Each of the character ornaments contain audio from the episode, and will play back lines from the episode on their own — but when brought together, the ornaments will communicate with each other with built-in radio technology to replicate scenes from the episode where those characters interacted.
Once all seven $29.00 ornaments are released — Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov — the entire set will work together to perform a cut-down, abbreviated rendition of “Mirror, Mirror” for owners.
You’ll want to make sure you have a Hallmark Keepsake Power Cord in order to experience the audio/visual elements of this impressive ornament (sold separately) — and just to be clear, the Power Cord is not the same as the Magic Cord, which was a previous tech innovation and is not compatible with these ornaments.
If you’re a long time collector like me, you probably have a few of these things lying around. I was very confused for a moment when I grabbed my Magic Cord box by accident.
Since I don’t yet have McCoy on hand, I can’t evaluate the full-crew audio experience, but I can still tell you about Scotty in detail!
Considering these audio clips are coming from a 1960s television show, I think the sound quality is pretty remarkable — especially when you compare it to some of the very early talking Star Trek ornaments from the 90s. I ended up plugging in Uhura alongside Scotty, and the volume level between the two sounds nice and even… so I can’t wait to have them ALL linked up in the end!
As for the physical ornament, Mirror Scotty’s uniform and accessories are nicely detailed. The character has his dagger on his right hip, his phaser on his left, the iconic Terran empire logo is present on his chest, along with the three medals pins on the left and rank braids on his sleeves — and of course, that stylishly evil gold lamé sash (which isn’t quite sparkly enough for me!).
Where I did want to see a bit more detail was in the sculpt of Scotty’s facial features. This ornament looks a bit more like the character design from The Animated Series than live-action Jimmy Doohan. Don’t get me wrong: it’s still obviously Scotty at a glance, but it comes off a bit cartoonish.
Overall, this is a great addition to the Star Trek ornament family — and since it is a Power Cord ornament, it’s the kind of thing you can easily leave up and enjoy all year long. Wouldn’t it be cool, though, if Hallmark released a little folding cardboard bridge or transporter room or something, as a backdrop for the ornaments and a way to hide the Power Cord?
I’ll be counting down the days until I can get my hands on McCoy in October, so I can hear the whole crew in action! Make your next away mission a trip to your local Hallmark store, or head over to Hallmark’s website where the whole crew is standing by: Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, with McCoy to be available next month.
Just be sure to avoid transporter malfunctions and any staff wearing gold lamé sashes!
Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek merchandise news and reviews!