For casual Star Wars fans, the announcement of a massive, in-scale HasLab Mos Eisley cantina display for action figures is big news. And at 32″ by 19″, it certainly qualifies as big. But to hardcore, longtime collectors, there’s even more significant news.
For years, we’ve been told that the only characters completely off-limits for action figures were the Tonnika sisters, two female human twins briefly seen hanging out in the original Star Wars. Hasbro typically stays tight-lipped about what is or isn’t forbidden and why. The presumption was that the actresses hadn’t signed any kind of contract that would permit use of their likeness. Since there were so few female characters in the original trilogy, this felt like a loss.
Gin and Tonnikas
Whatever the reason for the prohibition, it’s now gone, apparently — in addition to including Wuher the bartender, Brea and Senni Tonnika will come in the package. Hasbro’s careful to note that they come on exclusive cards, which suggests they’ll be available later in some other form.
The cantina itself comes in two tiers — an open diorama version for those who want to see everything inside from their shelf and a deluxe edition for an extra $100 that includes a fourth wall to enclose the whole thing. There’s no roof, so one can always look inside from above. Iritatingly, there’s no floor either, an issue with many recent Hasbro playsets and dioramas.
Naturally, there are stretch tiers. If enough extra crowdfund backers sign up for either tier, the package could add newly sculpted figures of Greedo, four-armed gas-mask wearer Nabrun Leids, and wolfman Arleil Schous. For any longtime fans who may be confused, there were two cantina wolfmen: Lak Sivrak, who previously had a figure, and Arleil Schous. Both utilized the same Rick Baker werewolf Halloween mask, but Baker deformed the one for Schous to make it different and more monstrous. George Lucas was never a fan of either due to them using that pre-existing base design and removed them as much as he could in the Special Editions.
The cantina needs 8,000 backers (of either tier) in the next 30 days, running $400 for the basic or $500 for the deluxe set. At 11,000, 14,000, and 17,000 the preorder adds the extra figures, but you get the Tonnikas and Wuher no matter what.
There are a lot of images to check out below, including the custom sticker sheet that includes wanted posters and graffiti.
