Interview with César Soares, designer of 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina
Posted by CapnRex101,
75290 Mos Eisley Cantina represents the latest addition to César Soares' impressive LEGO Star Wars portfolio, which can be viewed on César's dedicated BrickList.
Brickset recently contacted César to discuss the development of 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina, with questions also supplied by Jedi News.
Brickset: How long was the development of 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina and why was this set released now?
César: The development period for this model was about five or six months, from a design perspective. LEGO Star Wars sets depicting locations are always popular and the Mos Eisley scene, particularly the cantina is very iconic.
We have produced three previous renditions and all of them were much smaller than this design. However, releasing a bigger model seemed sensible based upon the nature of the cantina, which is relatively small, its importance for the story and how several of the famed heroes are introduced to the audience inside the cantina. With these factors in mind, there was a chance to create a lovely play set where fans can re-enact their favourite scenes and build a set with great display potential.
Why is 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina categorised as an 18+ set?
It was a natural choice for this set to be categorised for our older fans, being super iconic, nostalgically appealing and having a high piece count and complexity. However, the set does offer both play and display qualities.
The press release mentions that you designed a Mos Eisley Cantina soon after joining LEGO. Was that a preliminary model for this set?
Shortly after I started in January 2016, I assembled the first brick-built sketch model for this set because I believed that a big, complete cantina set would be amazing. It sat on my desk for a while until the right time came to build it as an official LEGO set. The final rendition is actually very close to that original creation. The size and shape are virtually the same and the way in which it folds open is extremely similar.
Originally, the additional buildings were slightly smaller but, again, they were close in design to the completed structures. The only things that were not initially present were the speeders and my conceptual model included one moisture vaporator, rather than two.
Were those supplementary buildings included throughout the design process or was the set originally focused entirely upon the cantina?
The preliminary design also featured the additional buildings. We wanted it to be possible to recreate scenes which occur outside the cantina and are very important so adding a couple more characteristic Tatooine, or more specifically Mos Eisley Spaceport, buildings, was our intention from the beginning.
Did you consider using decorated IG-88 heads for the drink dispensers?
I did consider using them but one of the main characteristics of the bar is how shiny and polished the dispensers are and IG-88 heads are dark bluish grey so it would look a bit odd, sadly. Looking back now, perhaps I could have included an IG-88 head as an easter egg. Maybe next time!
Why did you design the Mos Eisley Cantina with an open roof?
The area of the roof directly above the bar is assumed to have some kind of skylight and that was open from the beginning. The roofs of the alcoves are complete, of course, but removable so you can reach their interiors. However, the roof area between the bar and the alcoves is also open for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, we wanted people who might display the cantina in an open 'L-shaped' position, with the bar close to one of the sides, to be able to place the roof on top. Had the roof been completely enclosed, it would not stay in position without support on every side due to the weight of the extra pieces. Also, leaving the roof partially open allows you to see bits of the interior without having to remove it which can be useful if you want to show it to friends or family, for example.
Does 75270 Obi-Wan’s Hut connect with 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina, using the clips on both models?
No, the clips on 75270 Obi-Wan’s hut serve a different purpose. They are provided to store blasters and accessories so that was never intended to be directly connected to this model.
You also designed 75271 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder that was released in January. Were these two sets developed together?
I designed 75271 Luke's Landspeeder a few months before I started to work on the final design for 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina. Luke’s Landspeeder is iconic enough to warrant its own set because it works very well as a small vehicle that is widely recognisable and offers plenty of play value. On that basis, the Landspeeder was not considered to be an add-on for 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina when it was being designed.
Did you consider including any connections with The Mandalorian television series?
At the time we were developing 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina, we had no information about the cantina or Tatooine being featured during The Mandalorian television show, so that was not considered.
How does designing sets which are accurately scaled beside minifigures, like 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina, compare with those which must be scaled down, such as 75244 Tantive IV?
Both the Tantive IV and the Mos Eisley Cantina had a similar main goal: achieving good playability while at the same time being displayable and truthful to the source material. Of course, when a model is designed at minifigure-scale it is a bit easier, at least for me, as you don’t need to make as many compromises regarding what to include. This happens because sets that are scaled down are frequently larger ships or locations which are full of details and rooms where important scenes occur. That means we have to choose what is best to include.
For instance, in 75244 Tantive IV, we had to decide whether we wanted to put more detail and allocate space to a meeting room or the iconic corridor where the battle occurs onscreen. On the other hand, in 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina, we made the decision to include just six alcoves instead of eight but none of them have less detail or are significantly smaller than they would if we had chosen to include all eight. At the end of the day, they are quite different to design but I cannot say that I prefer one over the other.
How were the minifigures chosen, given the breadth of potential characters?
The minifigure selection was a fun process because there are so many exciting and interesting characters that could be included. However, sadly we couldn’t include them all and we had to take into consideration things like how important they are to the story, how iconic they are and which ones work best as LEGO minifigures.
The heroes were absolutely necessary and the Bith musicians, Greedo and Wuher, the bartender, were also logical choices along with the Sandtroopers. After this we had to choose wisely and Ponda Baba, Dr Evazan and Garindan were among the first choices. They are either very iconic or had an important role in some way. The rest were a matter of finding characters that we thought would be interesting and iconic and would please fans. Finally, we also added a Jawa because you cannot include a Jawa Shop without one!
Which is your favourite of the minifigures that are included with this set?
Garindan is my favourite, not only because of the new head element but because the graphic designers did an amazing job and the minifigure therefore looks awesome. Also, the character himself is so mysterious and occupied a key role in the scene so it would be hard for me not to select him as my favourite!
Additional questions and answers from César are available on Jedi News.
You can find a BrickList documenting all of César's models here and our review of 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina here.
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28 comments on this article
The roof design might be the coolest part of this set - even if it doesn't look like the canon roof, it lets you recreate the look of the inside of the cantina, which in the movie is a dark place with stark white light coming down from the ceiling. Great interview!
Great interview! Glad that you asked about the clips on Obi-Wan’s hut...!
Now, if only LEGO would get this set back in stock...! (WHAT is going on with that?!?!?)
Kudos to Cesar. It is a great set indeed. Maybe you could have hypnotized him and ordered him to make cantina battlepacks with more cantina aliens in them as a next move?
Thanks for the Obi Wan hut answers.
There is an opening on the roof of the Mis Eisley Cantina with that design but in-universe I believe it is supposed to be on top of the bar only
I still don't get why people think this should connect to Obi-Wan's hut. He didn't live in Mos Eisley. His nearest "next door neighbor" probably couldn't even be seen from his "yard".
César Soares, is my favorite Lego designer. Outstanding. The former teacher is a key element of the Star Wars team, also shines when embraces projects "outside", biggest example the 21318 Lego Tree House!
Would like to see him working on medieval and landscaping projects if he gets the opportunity.
The Cantina is also excellent, keep the great job Cesar!
@PurpleDave said:
"I still don't get why people think this should connect to Obi-Wan's hut. He didn't live in Mos Eisley. His nearest "next door neighbor" probably couldn't even be seen from his "yard"."
Agreed. I found that to be a rather odd question.
Thanks for the interview. I really like this set since I've been a Star Wars fan since 1978. However, you should have asked if Lego are going to do a YouTube designer series video with Cesar like they have for many other large sets. :)
I think the minifigure characters were chosen perfectly. We are shown quite a few other aliens briefly but the ones included in the set have the camera longer slightly longer on them and are significantly different species for the most part.
@Chouju_X_SPAM_:
It's not just that it's a weird question, even. It's that I don't think I've read a single article about the cantina set that _didn't_ have someone ask if it would connect to Obi-Wan's hut.
@PurpleDave said:
"I still don't get why people think this should connect to Obi-Wan's hut. He didn't live in Mos Eisley. His nearest "next door neighbor" probably couldn't even be seen from his "yard"."
I think everyone understands that Obi-Wan's hut is extremely isolated and situated far from Mos Eisley. However, 75270 Obi-Wan's Hut includes several exposed clips on the reverse, some of which are evidently intended for accessories while others appear more useful for connecting to another model. This has been discussed at length among LEGO Star Wars fans.
César has now responded to that discussion by confirming that all the aforementioned clips are intended for accessory storage.
Okay, so knowing that, are there enough accessories in the set to fill all of the clips?
Regardless of that, it's a bit like asking if the new Diagon Alley set is designed to connect to Hogwarts. I mean, if you really want to, it's not like these are Hasbro playsets. You can always modify the design to make it possible to connect them, but it makes no sense why anyone would do so. Even ignoring the story aspect of it, attaching it to the back would probably prevent you from spreading the walls open. Attaching it to either side wall would basically leave the hut tucked out of view. And attaching it near the entrance...would just look weird. On top of all of that, when's the last time they used clip connections to link two sets together? Have they ever done that? I'm only familiar with Technic pins being used to chain sets, or there's Jabba's Palace which nests on top of four pillars in the Rancor Pit.
Having Kenobi's cabin connect to the cantina would make exactly as much sense as a wampa cave attached to Echo Base.
@bananaworld:
That...actually makes a lot more sense than you appear to think. A storyline that was eventually cut from the film (but which leaves trace amounts of evidence in the final result) was that Wampas would end up rampaging through Echo Base, and eventually get locked into a room. During the evecuation, they would be let loose to have their way with the Imperial troops.
For that to happen, they've got to get in _somehow_, and the most sensible means is for base construction to accidentally break through into...a Wampa cave. Just not _THE_ Wampa cave, so having Luke hang upside-down in this cave is what would make no sense. You know, unless he's made a habit of being caught by every Wampa within a day's travel of the base.
^ Correct! And a dim memory tells me it was Threepio that was the one who released them. This, along with the Panagra debate a few days ago, makes me wonder if we don't give enough credit to the designers love and meta knowledge of the Universes they're designing in...
@magni_nominis_umbra:
Indeed it was Goldenrod who notices the warning sign as he's hobbling through the base.
I never did get a response from you to my question about the PAA vs PAA Grace issue, BTW. Would a transfer from one to the other have been possible in either Havana or Mexico City?
@jlskywalker said:
"César Soares, is my favorite Lego designer. Outstanding. The former teacher is a key element of the Star Wars team, also shines when embraces projects "outside", biggest example the 21318 Lego Tree House!
Would like to see him working on medieval and landscaping projects if he gets the opportunity.
The Cantina is also excellent, keep the great job Cesar!"
I feel the same. He is one of the best I think. You can find him in Flickr. He has a lot of stuff there from times before Lego. Castle stuff for example.
@unclghost said:
"The roof design might be the coolest part of this set - even if it doesn't look like the canon roof, it lets you recreate the look of the inside of the cantina, which in the movie is a dark place with stark white light coming down from the ceiling. Great interview!"
the roof is actually pretty accurate if you look at the movie set design models and blueprints
http://cantinacustoms.tripod.com/id20.htm
I’m going to address the elephant in the room here. I see that César designed 75201 First Order AT-ST, which is considered one of the worst Star Wars sets that they’ve made.
Firstly, I want to acknowledge that the actual design/concept isn’t César‘s fault, it was just a dumb set for LEGO to produce. What else could he have done to make this better?
Secondly, I wondered if making this set was César‘s idea, or if he was stuck with making this by his boss at LEGO? If it’s the latter, then he has my sympathy and he made the best of a bad brief.
Besides all of that, I absolutely love his work. He’s made some damn fine models :-)
@PurpleDave
Commenting is switched off on the RSOTD post so - I'll continue here.
Firstly - that IMDB plane database is pretty cool - I've never seen that resource before but I LIKE it!
1. Panagra (or PanAm for that matter) never operated any Antonov aircraft. After all they were an entirely Soviet Aircraft. The Fairchild FC-2 (which Panagra DID operate) was a single engine overhead wing passenger aircraft remarkably similar to the AN-2 - so much so its conceivable to think the AN-2 (despite being first produced nearly 20 years after the FC-2) may have HEAVILY based upon the Fairchild design. I cant confirm if the FC-2 was being used between Havana and Lima in 56 though I'd be VERY surprised if it were as it would have been over 25 years old at this point. It would be far more likely to have been a DC-4,5,6 but COULD have been a DC-3. I believe the Antonov was used in the movie as the graphics team would have had hundreds of AN-2 graphics to use but unlikely any FC-2 and they look pretty much the same!
2. Pan Am flew between the Continental US and Havana from 28 up until 58 though, once again by 56 it would have definitely been a DC-4,5 or 6.
3. Pan Am were definitely servicing Mexico City from the 30's until the company's demise in 91.
4. Although I'm not familiar with Soviet Air operations I believe it close to inconceivable that the Soviet Union had the capability in 56 to get a large, four engined aircraft to Peru. They certainly couldn't have gone through Cuba as 56 was the height of Batista's second reign and was, by this stage, pretty much entirely backed by the CIA who would have been monitoring air traffic in the region EXTREMELY closely!
HOWEVER... and its a BIG however.
Its unlikely Indy and Mutts journey would have gotten very far at all! The DC-3 they travel in, Civil Registration NC33611 (which actually WAS a Pan Am registered DC-3) crashed on the 4th of June 1945 following takeoff from Port Of Spain-Piarco Airport in Trinidad and Tobago and was subsequently written off.
@GeordiePaul said:
"I’m going to address the elephant in the room here. I see that César designed 75201 First Order AT-ST, which is considered one of the worst Star Wars sets that they’ve made.
Firstly, I want to acknowledge that the actual design/concept isn’t César‘s fault, it was just a dumb set for LEGO to produce. What else could he have done to make this better?
Secondly, I wondered if making this set was César‘s idea, or if he was stuck with making this by his boss at LEGO? If it’s the latter, then he has my sympathy and he made the best of a bad brief.
Besides all of that, I absolutely love his work. He’s made some damn fine models :-)"
The elephant in the room here is the Mos Eisley Cantina. The First Order AT-ST is irrelevant.
"Iconic" word count: 7
LOL
@PurpleDave said:
"On top of all of that, when's the last time they used clip connections to link two sets together? Have they ever done that?"
The small Gotham Energy sets 70900 / 70901 / 70910 first come to mind, see them connected in this review (as suggested in the instructions): https://brickset.com/article/26399/review-70910-scarecrow-special-delivery
I also think several of this year's Ninjago sets are intended to be connected with clips, for example 71717 / 71721 / 71722
@magni_nominis_umbra:
I don't know how related any of these are (i.e. if they're run by the same organization), but there are at least a few other similar databases. IMCDb and IMFDb are basically the same, but for cars and firearms. I've bumped into the car database on a few occasions, but this is the first time I've stumbled on the aircraft one, and I was aware that there was a firearms version so I've probably landed on that one at some point. I have no idea if there are any others pertaining to TV/movies, as the main page covers just about everything else I could think of that people might want to look up except filming locations. But on to the rest of the stuff!
1. The IMPDb even mentions that the Antonov An-2 is anachronistic, but the thing I was more interested in is if the fact that they switched flights in either Havana or Mexico City meant it would be more likely that they would have actually boarded a PAA plane in NYC vs a Panagra/PAA Grace plane. A secondary curiosity is if the PAA Grace livery is legit, or if they just styled it after the PAA livery for whatever reason.
As for what I think is a suggestion that they might have used stock footage, I have no idea if they did that, or if they actually hired planes to shoot new footage for their travel/map sequences. Knowing the answer to that would be necessary to explain why they used those specific planes, as they may have been limited to whatever functional period aircraft they could track down at the time, especially if they were looking for period livery vs having custom deco applied to the plane just for filming their shots (it's maybe worth noting that they show at least two different clips of the DC-3 in the film).
2&3. Okay, so PAA did service down to where they changed flights. And if Panagra/PAA Grace flew all the way to NYC, then I'm guessing they _also_ serviced Havana and Mexico City. So, the fact that they changed flights means it's entirely legitimate for them to board a regular PAA flight out of NYC rather than flying Panagra/PAA Grace the entire way, at which point the Panagra livery for the plane in the set seems like it may have been more of a personal preference for something more lively (or just to fit with the title of the set), or the result of a research flub.
4. Next thing you're going to tell me, it's impossible for Indy to have met a real vampire.
I'm so excited that I will be adding this awesome set this next thursday. Can't wait! Everything relating Tatooine and Hoth is a must have for me. IMO this is the best SW set we've seen this year. The details are amazing.
@Chouju_X_SPAM_ said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"I still don't get why people think this should connect to Obi-Wan's hut. He didn't live in Mos Eisley. His nearest "next door neighbor" probably couldn't even be seen from his "yard"."
Agreed. I found that to be a rather odd question."
I guess in terms of playability... it doesn't have to be *Obi-Wan's* hut, if you take out the hologram and lightsaber. It'd just be another building, I guess
I still can't get over the fact that there's no arm printing in this entire set. I wish that was brought up during the interview. They include minifigs with arm printing in CMF series but not in a massive Master Builder Series set? They included exceptional minifigs in Betrayal at Cloud City ( 75222 ) Sad to see that LEGO can't make a better Greedo minifig than they did 16 years ago in set 4501 .