Hallmark released two new Star Wars Storyteller ornaments in 2019: The Imperial Star Destroyer and the Y-Wing. Like the other Storyteller ornaments, they feature LED illuminated regions (the cargo bay on the Star Destroyer, the cockpit on the Y-Wing) that slowly rotate through different colors.
Powered and connected by Hallmark’s proprietary Keepsake power cord, the two new ships join the ornament-based retelling of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, extending it to include dialogue from the initial capture of the Tantive IV at the opening of the movie as well as additional Death Star battle scenes. The two ornaments complete the New Hope collection, culminating with a full 9 minutes of audio. Truth be told …. it’s a long 9 minutes. There are a lot of battle sounds associated with these ornaments, and it can feel like half of the audio is fly-bys and laser fire.
As for the ornaments themselves, the Imperial Star Destroyer is a huge ornament. At 6.7″ long, the Star Destroyer dwarfs the previous 2004 Star Destroyer release, which is 5″ long and not nearly as wide or tall. The larger size means the ornament needs to be nestled in among the Geek Tree boughs, lest it gets smashed by a passing puppy or human. It lacks the more detailed grey paint job of its predecessor, tending more toward light grey/white, and it’s illuminated hanger bay is difficult to see when placed on a lower bough. That said, it’s an impressively sized ornament that dominates that whatever portion of the tree it’s placed in.
The Y-Wing, with its space-weathered paint job and illuminated cockpit, is the more visually interesting of the two ornaments. It’s slightly larger than its 2015 counterpart, but the detail is comparable.