I was on the fence about the Mos Eisley Cantina (75290) for some time. It is not that I did not like the set. It was not even the price tag. I love Star Wars. However, I have no where to display this set. Ultimately, that is the reason I never bought the Ewok Village (which I now solemnly regret). In any case, while compiling the weekly Canadian LEGO® Deals post a few weeks ago, I happened upon a deal too good to pass on. For one night only, you were able to score Mos Eisley for 24% off. Naturally, I jumped on the deal. I still have no where to put it, but I have never seen a deal that good before on this set. The end result is that you now get to read my views on the set 😉
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MOS EISLEY CANTINA (75290) SUMMARY
- NAME: Mos Eisley Cantina
- SET #: 75290
- THEME: Star Wars
- COST: $449.99 CAD
- BRICK COUNT: 3187
- MINIFIGURES: 20
- OF INTEREST: R2-D2 + dewback
- RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2020
MOS EISLEY CANTINA (75290) QUICK REVIEW
- VALUE: 82% (At full price you get an average cost-per-brick, and a good build time.)
- BUILD: 90% (Detailed, nostalgic set for Star Wars fans.)
- MINIFIGURES: 88% (Nice assortment of characters, many are unique to the set.)
- ENTERTAINMENT: 80% (Niche interest and needs a lot of display space.)
- OVERALL SCORE: 85% (Good set.)
MOS EISLEY CANTINA (75290) REVIEW
VALUE: 82%
At full price, Mos Eisley costs $449.99 in Canada. The resulting cost-per-brick is $0.14, which is average for LEGO® sets. Since I do not regularly collect Star Wars sets, I do not have a reliable average for the theme at this time. Consequently, at full price, I rate the value of this set at 80%. However, I bought mine at 24% off. While it is hard to find this set that cheap, the cost-per-brick was $0.11. That is pretty darn good, earning 90%.
I built Mos Eisley a little bit at a time over seven days. I listened to a Star Wars audio book while I did it for added effect. In total, the set took me nine hours and 38 minutes to assemble. At full price, the cost-per-minute of build time works out to $0.78. That is a good value, earning 84%. At 24% off, the value is even better at $0.59/minute and a score of 94%. Averaging the cost-per-brick and per-minute scores at full price gives a value rating of 82%. With the price I paid, that score jumps up to 92%.
BUILD: 90%
The first two bags contain the pieces for assembling a V-35 landspeeder. For Star Wars fans, this is truly a unique build. The LEGO® Group never produced this model of landspeeder before Mos Eisley. For a side build, this is a nice one. It features a sleek design with space for two Minifigures. One fits reclining inside the cockpit, while the other can stand by an open-top computer console mid-ship. The rear of the ship is a little bland though. Adding some 1×2 radiator grills would have made it a little more interesting. However, it is very nice overall. Additionally, it goes well with Mos Eisley as a side build. You only ever see the landspeeder on Tatooine in the movies, and this color variant is only ever seen by Mos Eisley in A New Hope.
Bags three through 16 assemble the cantina proper. It comes together in three main segments, plus a mostly open, removable roof. Taking off the roof allows some interior access. However, the three main segments hinge open as well, and the roof over each booth is also removable. In short, you will have no difficulty placing your Minifigures in this set.
With a removable roof, you’ll have no trouble placing Minifigures inside Mos Eisley.
Mos Eisley is a movie accurate set. The bar looks great, as does each booth of the establishment. One of the seats features a lever so that Greedo can jolt a bit when Han shoots him. Additionally, the set has two raising doors for interior access. One of the doors leads into a rear storage room never seen in the film. According to the instruction manual notes, Disney gave the LEGO® Group some leeway to design this space since no depictions of the room exist. The outside of the building has a dewback water trough, some random storage containers, and two water collecting towers attached.
The 17th and 18th bags feature bricks for the assembly of a couple of side buildings. Both look like shops of some sort, and one has an open back. They look nice, and they add to a street set-up for the set. I am not huge on the open back design of the larger side-building though. It does not fit well with the other two sealed buildings.
Looking to build a LEGO® Tatooine? This set offers three buildings.
In the end, the build techniques in this set did not blow me away. The most interesting is perhaps the roof lattice. It teaches you an interesting angular structure. However, the lack of novel techniques did not make the experience unenjoyable. I liked building Mos Eisley quite a bit. Unlike the UCS Millennium Falcon, you clearly know what you are assembling each step of the way here. The Falcon features a lot of unused interior space, structural support, and panel work. The non-descript pieces do not have the nostalgic value of the scenes you build in Mos Eisley. I rate the build experience at 9/10.
MINIFIGURES: 88%
Mos Eisley includes a whopping 20 Minifigures. In addition, you also get R2-D2 (which LEGO.com counts as a minifig) and a dewback. Of the 20 characters, nine are unique to this set. Additionally, all characters have front and back torso printing, five characters have double sided faces, and seven have leg printing. Interestingly, nine of them have specially molded heads. This negates the usual loss of points for lacking double-sided faces in my opinion. They have special features that do not allow for printing on both sides of the head. The only real negative about these characters is that two come with stumpy legs. I much prefer the short, moveable legs. The set also includes 57 accessories. I will not go through them all here… but that’s a lot. I rate the character design at 91%.
If we add R2-D2 and the dewback to the character count, there are 22 figurines included with Mos Eisley. In a 3187-piece kit, the brick-to-fig ratio works out to 145 bricks per Minifigure. Comparatively, True North Bricks’ average is 170 bricks per fig. Consequently, you get a good number of characters for a set this big. I rate that at 85%. Averaging this with the design score gives an overall Minifigure rating of 88%.
ENTERTAINMENT: 80%
I am not sure what I am going to do with this build. I like it, but I have no where to display it. Additionally, it does not go with any of my current displays. However, I dream of making a display case/coffee table for my UCS Millennium Falcon. I wanted this set for inspiration to build a scene around it. I imagine my Falcon parked on Tatooine. However, this set will not appear as designed in that setting. The table would be too big in that case. I will mod it for sure. For me, the most entertaining part of Mos Eisley was the build. As a set, you need a lot of space in order to display it. For Star Wars fans, this is a great piece, especially if you have a custom Tatooine scene going on. However, this is very much a niche interest piece. I rate the entertainment value at 80%.
OVERALL SCORE: 85%
At full price, Mos Eisley comes at a fairly average value. Additionally, it is hard to display. However, the build experience is nostalgic and fun. On top of that, there are so many Minifigures and many of them are not available in any other sets. Big sets often skimp on minifigs, but that is not the case here. Star Wars fans will like this one, especially if your LEGO® city happens to look like Tatooine. While I will disassemble this set, I am happy to have it and the Minifigures that come with it. I also enjoyed assembling the set because it was nostalgic. Perhaps it will inspire a scene to surround my UCS Millennium Falcon one day. I also got it 24% off, and at that discount the score goes up to 88%. What do you think of Mos Eisley? Reach out in the comment below or on social media.
Until next time,
-Tom
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