Is the LEGO Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina (75290) a Good Investment Set?

4th March 2023

The Mos Eisley Cantina was released as part of the Master Builder Series, to which the Betrayal at Cloud City also belongs. That set has since become very valuable on the secondary market, so in this article we take a look at whether the Cantina could do the same.

The set

This set is the fourth time LEGO have visited the spaceport of Mos Eisley and it's by far the biggest and most accurate depiction of the location. Although we don't see all of the Cantina in Episode IV: A New Hope, LEGO designers have filled in the blanks and provided an outstanding model.

With the majority of Star Wars sets being a wash of grey parts, the sand-yellow colour scheme makes this one stand out. The exterior detail is also fantastic and creates visual interest from every angle. In addition to the main Cantina, there are two attachable side buildings that allow the layout of the Spaceport complex to be configured to your choosing.

The Cantina can be hinged open to reveal the interior, which also closely mirrors what we see onscreen. This centres around a well-detailed bar with numerous alcoves along the sides, where you can recreate movie scenes, such as the confrontation between Han Solo and Greedo.

The Cantina is hard to fault and represents the perfect balance of play and display value. Because of that, it's one of the most favourite sets currently on sale. It also feels like a very complete set, as there are some great small side builds, such as the V-35 Courier Landspeeder and the Ubrikkian 9000 Landspeeder, which didn't need to be included but make the set that bit better because of it.

Value for Money

Star Wars sets have never been the cheapest, and to make things worse, we saw a number of price increases last year. The Cantina was one of the affected sets and its RRP rose from £309.99 / $349.99 to £344.99 / $399.99. This equates to a price per piece of 10.8p / 12.6c, which is in the middle of the range for Star Wars sets.

The Minifigures

The Cantina contains 21 minifigures, nine of which are unique. As the Star Wars universe is home to many unusual alien species, it's no surprise some of these are very distinctive.

The minifigures that are going to be most valuable after this set retires are Garindan, Ponda Baba, Labria (Kardue'sai'Malloc), and Momaw Nadon, as they all look fantastic, represent never before seen characters, and contain unique moulds. If you're looking for good investment minifigures, I would recommend buying these four separately.

Unique Parts

Given the colourful nature of this set, it's not surprising there are some unique and rare parts. A few of these could become desirable for collectors and MOC builders, most notably the new Dewback, which improves upon the previous version with some slighter better printing. There's also a brown fabric awning on one of the side builds, which could become relatively valuable, as it would look at home in various historical models. The inclusion of these parts is a small plus for this set's investment potential.

Outlook

As mentioned earlier, the only previous Master Builder Series set has gone up considerably in value since it retired. The Cantina is a better set than the Betrayal at Cloud City and contains more interesting minifigures.

However, despite its quality, the Cantina has had a very long shelf life. When it retires at the end of 2024, it will have been around for more than four years. This is the only thing that might prevent it from performing well on the secondary market. Having said that, the Death Star (75159) had exactly the same lifespan and that set now sells for around twice its RRP.

TLDR

Investment opportunity: GOOD

The Mos Eisley Cantina has all the makings of a great investment set. If it wasn't for its long shelf life, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend adding it to your investment portfolio. However, I still expect it to make some profit after it retires as it's a set that anyone new to the hobby is going to want.

Disclaimer: This article or any others on brickranker.com should not be considered financial advice and investing in LEGO is risky.

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