Review: LEGO Hallmark Keepsake 2022 Collection
November 14, 2022
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We’re WEEKS away from Christmas, and if you’re the type to really get into the festive mood, it’s likely that you’ve already put up (or are putting up) your Christmas Tree.
We finally put up ours this weekend, and the timing also coincided quite well with the arrival of the 2022 LEGO Hallmark Keepsake collection, which was revealed way back in April.
LEGO has had a long-standing licensing agreement with Hallmark, and they’ve released many of these Hallmark Keepsake ornaments over the year, which are fun little things to collect, especially around the festive period.
The 2022 LEGO Hallmark Keepsake Collection has 4 ornaments – BB-8, Harry Potter, a Blue Classic Space Astronaut, and the Yeti from Series 11, making this the most varied selection yet.
If you’re in the US, they’re available from Amazon.com or other specialty retailers, and if you’re in Australia, I picked mine up from My Ornaments and I’m Rick James Bricks. They retail for US$16.99 in the US, and AU$25 each, and are made of high quality resin.
Here are the Amazon.com affiliate links:
If you’re thinking of picking the 2022 collection up, here’s a short review of each ornament, as well as some photos of how they look on my Christmas tree to give you a better idea of what they’ll look like!
Here’s a look at the Hallmark Keepsake boxes.
There’s quite a large community of Hallmark Keepsake collectors, especially since they’ve branched into plenty of pop culture and interests, so the boxes usually have the years printed on them.
Yeti
Here’s the Yeti, which you might remember from LEGO Minifigures Series 11. The Yeti is a great character to feature as a Hallmark Keepsake, as it’s winter-y, but not too overtly about Christmas and one of the more memorable LEGO Collectible minifigures.
Like the original minifigure, the Yeti comes with a blue popsicle although the colour is slightly less vibrant than the regular blue LEGO popsicle.
Like most Hallmark ornaments which are made out of resin, the details are pretty good, although my Yeti had some slight imperfections as you can see here.
Here’s how it looks from the back. Unfortunately, Hallmark ornaments don’t come with their own string, so you’ll have to use your own.
If you’re curious about how these LEGO Hallmark Ornaments stack up next to the real thing, here’s a side by side comparison. The ornaments are slightly larger and as you can see above, does an amazing job of looking like a upscaled LEGO minifigure.
Do note that the Hallmark Keepsakes are completely rigid, so there’s no leg, arm or any other type of articulation.
And here is the Yeti hanging on my tree! It’s white so if you have a regular green Christmas tree, it’ll contrast quite nicely and is quite cute. It’s my 2nd favourite from the 2022 collection.
Harry Potter
Here’s a look at the LEGO Harry Potter Hallmark Keepsake ornament next to the original minifigure it was based on, which was from 75979 Hedwig. It’s the first time LEGO Harry Potter has featured in the Hallmark Keepsake collection.
Like the Yeti, it isn’t the most Christmas-y version of Harry Potter, which would probably be the one with the H Christmas jumper, but it’s wintery enough with the Gryffindor scarf, and blue gloves.
Interestingly, Harry’s minifigure face is more pinkish compared to the paler minifigure version.
I’m not sure what the Quality Control is like with Hallmark, but you can see above that the printing on Harry’s torso is slightly wonky and isn’t aligned at all. I’m not sure if this is just this particular ornament, or if the entire batch is affected, but it’s quite disappointing.
BB-8
The next Hallmark Keepsake goes to LEGO Star Wars with a Santa BB-8, which you might remember from the 2017 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar.
It’s a very good replica of the Santa BB-8 (sans snowboard) and unfortunately, I couldn’t find mine, so I couldn’t do a side by side comparison with the original minifigure.
Here’s a look at the back and again, there is some wonky printing with the middle orange sphere, which isn’t centered correctly.
If you’re like me and used to LEGO’s incredibly high quality standards, this stuff is honestly quite surprising, and considering the price, sours the experience slightly.
Here’s BB-8 hanging out with the Blue Classic Space Astronaut.
BB-8 is an okay LEGO Star Wars Hallmark Keepsake, but it’s nowhere as good as last year’s Darth Vader + Stormtrooper with Christmas jumper combo. I really would’ve liked a proper minifigure, so hopefully 2023 will be more interesting!
Blue Classic Space Astronaut
And last but certainly not least, and my favourite ornament from the 2022 collection is the Blue Classic Space Astronaut, which is a really fitting dose of nostalgia to celebrate LEGO’s 90th Anniversary, and the Classic Space resurgence that we’re currently living through.
It’s the best of the collection, and will likely be the one that sells out the quickest, so if you’re a fan of LEGO Classic Space or general LEGO nostalgia, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick this one up as it’s an awesome collectible in itself.
Thankfully, this particular ornament doesn’t really suffer from any imperfections, and all the hallmarks (heh) of Classic Space are nicely captured here such as the airtanks, as well as the dimples on the helmet.
Here’s a comparison with a Blue Classic Space minifigure, and you can immediately tell how faithful this ornament is to the original.
Got to love that simple classic smiley and that gleaming moon on his torso. No cracks on the helmet too!
This brings the total of Classic Space Astronaut figures up to 4 (5 if you count the minifigure trophy) and a great one to add to your collection if you’re like me and collect all sorts of Classic Space paraphernalia.
From L-R: Minifigure, Hallmark Keepsake, LEDLite Keychain, and LEDLite Torch.
And here’s all 4 of them hanging on my Christmas tree!
Overall, I really like the 2022 LEGO Hallmark Collection – it has some lovely variety with 4 different LEGO themes represented, ensuring that there’s something for almost everybody.
I don’t think you need to buy all 4 unless you’re a completionist and have been collecting these LEGO Hallmark Keepsakes, and you can just pick the ones you like.
I really love the Blue Classic Space Astronaut (which shouldn’t be a surprise), and it’s my favourite from the lineup this year, followed by the Yeti. I really hope we see nostalgia and vintage continue to be a fixture in the LEGO Hallmark Keepsake collection, and would love a Pirate, or Castle minifigure next year.
The only disappointing thing is the quality control which was downright poor with this batch that I got. 3 out of 4 ornaments with very glaring imperfections is not great, especially when they cost so much, and as there’s no way of inspecting as the boxes are sealed, I really hope that I got unlucky and it’s not a widespread issue.
That said, I’m not overly particular about these imperfections, so I’m willing to let them slide as I wouldn’t really notice them unless I went looking, and I’m using these as Christmas Tree ornaments anyway.
Just something you might want to consider if you’re splashing some cash on these decidedly very expensive but cool ornaments!
What do you think of the 2022 LEGO Hallmark Keepsake collection? What characters would you like to see next year? If you bought these, did yours have any obvious imperfections?
Thanks for reading my review of the 2022 LEGO Hallmark Keepsake collection!
In the US, they’re available from Amazon.com or other specialty retailers, and if you’re in Australia, I picked mine up from My Ornaments and I’m Rick James Bricks.
Here are the Amazon.com affiliate links for your convenience.
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