Hallmark has revealed its 2023 range of Keepsake Ornaments, featuring characters from some famous Nintendo franchises along with some others. The recent success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie has shown that video games and their characters are popular in a general sense, and while it may seem a little preemptive to start advertising holiday decorations in the middle of April, Hallmark ornaments can be highly collectible depending on their rarity and popularity, so there are likely gamers out there who are ready to snap up as many of them as they can.
There seem to be a few cases where Hallmark will repeat popular designs, but they are few and far between; the personalized Super Mario ornament has been available since at least 2021. 2021 also featured Charizard from Pokemon, Zelda and Link from the original NES version of The Legend of Zelda, Sub Zero from Mortal Kombat, and several other iconic characters. There was also a miniature light-up Super Nintendo console that was available in the 2022 collection as well.
This year Hallmark has revealed two Fortnite ornaments for their collection along with several popular Nintendo characters; Samus Aran from Metroid, Isabelle from Animal Crossing, and the Maro Kart version of Luigi who achieved meme status for his death stare. The Evolution Pokemon Eevee who is often the subject of fan art makes a return, albeit with a different design; the 2022 version had a somewhat more dynamic pose, but lacked the cute bow that 2023 Eevee will be sporting.
- Cat Mario (Super Mario) $18.99. Available July 15, 2023.
- Personalized Mario (Super Mario) $25.99. Available now.
- Light-up Warden (Minecraft) $19.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Polar Peely (Fortnite) $18.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Mini Toad (Super Mario) $9.99. Available July 15, 2023.
- Ffrosty Back Bling (Fortnite) $13.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Luigi (Mario Kart) $18.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Samus Aran (Metroid) $19.99. Available July 15, 2023.
- Musical Dreamcast Console with Light (Sega) $22.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Mini Holiday Eevee (Pokemon) $9.99. Available July 15, 2023.
- Bee (Minecraft) $13.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Snorlax (Pokemon) $18.99. Available November 10, 2023.
- Sonic's the Hedgehog's Spin Attack (Sonic the Hedgehog) $18.99. Available October 14, 2023.
- Isabelle (Animal Crossing) $18.99. Available October 14, 2023.
Sega fans will be happy to know that the 2023 collection of Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments includes the Sonic's Spin Attack ornament as well as a miniature version of the iconic Dreamcast which was the last console Sega produced as a competitor in the home console market. Unfortunately Sega bowed out as the market was dominated by the PlayStation 2 at the time, followed by Microsoft's original Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. Thankfully, the company lives on today and continues to produce excellent video games, albeit as a third party.
The 2023 Hallmark collection of ornaments seems to be dominated by Nintendo characters with more than half of the ornaments coming from Nintendo properties if one includes Eevee and Snorlax from Pokemon. Minecraft fans can choose between the adorable bee and the light-up Warden ornaments, but will likely have a tough time choosing. The ornaments will be available to order via the Hallmark website later this year.
Source: Hallmark