“Wrath of the Rancor” 2013 Holiday Keepsake Ornament by Hallmark (SDCC Exclusive)

I don’t really mind products that are exclusive to conventions or other events if they are standalone pieces or obscure variants. But when you have a company like Hallmark or Hasbro releasing things that are part of their main product line but can only be purchased at a convention, it makes things difficult. People who want to collect Hallmark’s entire line of Star Wars ornaments, for example, have no choice but to pay inflated prices on eBay if they can’t make it to the show (and let’s face it, going to something like San Diego Comic Con is going to be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, not to mention the time it takes to wait in line for all of these products at the show).

I’m mentioning this now because this particular ornament is exclusive to SDCC and NYCC, meaning that you can only get it at those cons or through the secondary market. It costs $34.99 at the convention, but prices on eBay are nearly triple that (and sometimes more, although I don’t think those particular auctions are actually selling). That sucks, but there’s little you can do about it except wait a while and hope that prices cool off after the excitement of the show has died down (they usually do). But, being the rabid Jabba (and rancor) fan that I am, I couldn’t wait.

The ornament itself isn’t really bad, but the paint job is a bit basic — mostly just brown with a dark wash over the top. One thing I don’t understand is why they chose to make his tail a brownish-green color. That’s something I’ve never seen on any other rancor statue or figure. They did add a real metal chain to his shackle, which is a nice touch.

The entire ornament is around 4 inches tall, so Luke is quite small — maybe an inch tall.  But even for being so small, he’s very simplistic indeed, with little detail in the sculpt and only broad swathes of color. Granted, it might actually have looked worse if they tried to fill in details like the eyes, but still I can’t help but feel that he looks unfinished.

I was hoping that this ornament might actually be in scale with the Jabba the Hutt ornament I posted about earlier, but that didn’t work out. Luke ends up being a head or two shorter than C-3PO, making the rancor smaller than he should be relative to Jabba.

All in all, it’s not a bad piece, but when you consider what you have to do to get it (either attend one of the shows or pay through the nose on eBay) it’s hard to recommend.