Hey Hallmark Ornament Collectors - Did I mention..

[MeanLaureen]

That I had the ornament catalog over a month ago and never gave out any Spoilers? I'm a bad bad girl

Well, I don't have it on me but I can tell you they are HEAVY into Disney this year. Expect to see an awesome tabletop piece for Pooh and family lovers. Expect to see more of Disney during premiere, debut and Open House. Cars will have an ornament this year.

The Dream Book won't be hitting your mailboxes until some time this month. There was a lot of last minute tweaking that has delayed it. Not sure if this will make the latest update on the Dreambook or not because it was a seperate catalog for me but, good news if you are a Christmas Story fan! There are several ornaments for you. The flag pole scene, Ralphy in the Bunny suit, a snowglobe with the Santa Slide scene and the best.. YES, The Leg Lamp in ornament form, complete with a crate!

I have a disk at work that I'll bring home on Weds and see if I can't get some of the images captured to show you. I can say this - quality and workmanship wise? I went WOW when I saw the catalog. They raised the bar this year and really went all out on detail.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about series or other ornaments and you can't wait for the Dreambook - feel free to post them here and I'll try to answer them on Weds when I bring the disk and catalog home

Oh, and for Open House lovers? It's a TWELVE DAY event this year!

 

[MagicalMom]

I can't wait! I collect the Gone With The Wind ornaments.

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

I love Rankin/Bass and have been waiting for Hallmark to make more ornaments from some of their specials like Rudolph, Year Without a Santa Claus or Santa CLaus Is Coming to Town. Please let me know if there are any new Rudolph ornaments or Rankin/Bass ornaments? Thanks!!!!

 

[janette]

I happened across a copy of the Dreambook on another site, I saved it but they have since taken it down since I guess it wasn't to be shared yet. I can post some pics if anyone has something they'd like to see. Really good job on some of them, hard for me to pick a favorite but I usually like them all

 

[Pugdog007]

I collect the Madame Alexander series. Do you know what that will be this year? It isn't close to hitting "last in the series" is it? What determines discontinuation - is it based solely on sales revenues?

 

[MeanLaureen]

I collect the Madame Alexander series. Do you know what that will be this year? It isn't close to hitting "last in the series" is it? What determines discontinuation - is it based solely on sales revenues?

I honestly can't remember off hand but I will be sure to check the catalog and get your answer on which MA Doll it is this year.

To answer your question about how the decision is made to discontinue a series - it can be one of a few things:

1) The series has obviously hit the last possible edition (like when the Fabulous Decade ended when the 90's was over)
2) It never sold well from the first edition (you will see some series end at 3 - usually they give them 3 years to start performing and if they don't - toast.
3) It was popular at first and the popularity has just died down to the point where its not holding it's own anymore.
4) The ideas for the next edition just aren't up to par with the beginning of the series - they want to end on a good note and not have people look at the series and think "this really got dumb at the end"
5) They lose the copyright for licensed characters - say there is a Snoopy series and we lose the rights to do a Snoopy ornament, we would have to end the series (and NO - we have NOT lost the right to Snoopy. The Shultz family is very happy with the job that Hallmark has done in carrying on the Snoopy franchise after Charles Shultz died. I just needed an example )
6) There is reported quality issues with the series. What might work great for one year might not hold up for many years. They had a Bellringer series of ceramic bells being rung by different characters but the ornaments just didn't hold up well. They fell apart or cracked easily. If you look at the going rate for one of those first ornaments - its astronomical!

and last but not least:

7) The artist that created the series is no longer associated with Hallmark and the material was such that they could not legally have another artist take over (in other words, a character that the artist created - for instance, if Mary Hamilton stopped working for Hallmark (creator of Mary's Angels and Mary's Bears) and kept the rights to her characters, they would have to cancel the Mary's Angels series even though it's very popular. I've met Mary Hamilton - VERY nice lady - probably in her early 60's though so a retirement some day is imminent - whether she will license out the charcters for us to continue with is up to her though. Same with Marjolein Bastin. If she ever severs ties with Hallmark we are up a creek because we use her artwork on everything! Also same with Thomas Kincade, etc.

Hope that helps answer your question

 

[Octoberbeauty]

Well, now I see how you got your name. I have been checking and checking the hallmark site, but nothing! At least now I know why. Last year the dreambook came out in March, so I've been having to use a lot of patience this year!! I can't wait to see the new ornaments. Hope you get to post some pics soon.

 

[janette]

 

[Octoberbeauty]

Thank you sooo much for posting those!! I'd love to see the Peanuts and Muppets if you get a chance and wouldn't mind.

 

[MeanLaureen]

Wow, Janette. That must have been a HUGE leak. That is not the retailers catalog and the mock ups that we get. That's finished product. I bet someone in the printing company that did the dreambooks or maybe that is doing a supplement for Hallmark for mailing out later this year leaked it. I can tell you that NOBODY at field level has access to those pictures! I'm sure that the people in Corporate Hallmark would hit the ROOF to find out those particular pictures were on the net. Of course, once the KOCC books are in the mail, gloves are off on the finished pictures.

To let you guys know how secretive the ornament division is, their floor in the corporate building is accessed by special pass only on the elevator. When I was there I couldn't go to that floor no matter HOW much I wanted to. I did get to go to the museum though

 

[janette]

This has the Madame Alexander ones. They look really cute.

 

[janette]

Wow, Janette. That must have been a HUGE leak. That is not the retailers catalog and the mock ups that we get. That's finished product. I bet someone in the printing company that did the dreambooks or maybe that is doing a supplement for Hallmark for mailing out later this year leaked it. I can tell you that NOBODY at field level has access to those pictures! I'm sure that the people in Corporate Hallmark would hit the ROOF to find out those particular pictures were on the net. Of course, once the KOCC books are in the mail, gloves are off on the finished pictures.

To let you guys know how secretive the ornament division is, their floor in the corporate building is accessed by special pass only on the elevator. When I was there I couldn't go to that floor no matter HOW much I wanted to. I did get to go to the museum though

It didn't last long so I think someone did hear from Corporate Hallmark. It wasn't that long ago. I figured since you'd offered to post pics it would be safe to do so now without a note from someone

 

[ChrisnSteph]

We collect the fire truck series! Do you have pics of this years model??

 

[MeanLaureen]

As long as you aren't the original owner I don't see how they can say anything. It's not so much that an image of the ornament is on the net - it's the fact that a very closely guarded publication made it out like that - someone smuggled something out. tsk tsk tsk. The stuff I have is very basic, plain and in some cases a mock up of the future product. Think of it as a movie - theaters get posters and trailers and stuff, but if they played the movie before the release date they would be in deep doodoo. This was Hallmark's "Movie"

 

[Octoberbeauty]

After you started this thread I went googling, (Is that a word? LOl) and found a collector's site where most of them received their dreambooks today. So, it was only a matter of time before the pics were out.

Thank you for ending a bad day on a good note!

 

[MeanLaureen]

After you started this thread I went googling, (Is that a word? LOl) and found a collector's site where most of them received their dreambooks today. So, it was only a matter of time before the pics were out.

Thank you for ending a bad day on a good note!

Cool! That's about a week earlier than anticipated! That's the thing with bulk rate mail - sometimes you win and it gets there practically overnight - sometimes your catalog gets there the day after the event is over.

 

[janette]

Here are some of the Peanuts this year. More than usual but they are nice. Don't see a muppets.

 

[janette]

Firetruck:

 

[luvthatduke]

Did Hallmark by chance decide to bring back
any adoption-specific ornaments for this year?
We were SO disappointed that they only had a "family"
ornament this past Christmas!
We had friends that adopted & were really looking forward
to giving them one that would mean as much as the one
we were given a couple of years ago.

 

[TheDisneyBunch]

Oohhh! Loving all the Disney ones!

I want to see the Christmas Story ones! my dad has always joked about buying the leg lamp so I want to get him the ornament of it..hehe