I started collecting in 1999, and within a short period of time, I decided I wanted to “collect them all.”  While I was still able to score some product at Toys R Us and other places (aided by the Great Warehouse Blowout of 2000), I had missed out on a sizable chunk of POTF2 items when they were available in stores.  I was playing catchup.  My goal, specifically, was to get all the figures.  I wasn’t as interested in the other stuff at first (that also changed pretty rapidly).  So when I found out that there was a white-pauldroned Sand Trooper, I had to get it. The cardboard nonsense was a throwaway.  I believe I won this set on Ebay (although it’s possible I did find it in a store).  I was excited to have that awesome Sand Trooper variant.  I opened the box, and tossed the cardboard diorama aside like Ralphie and Randy would toss aside Christmas socks.  The figure was wonderful! 

So that happened.  Fortunately, I merely tossed the cardboard aside, and not actually into the trash.  I soon grew to properly appreciate the Cantina at Mos Eisley for what it was.  A super-inexpensive, but cleverly constructed, “replica” of one of the greatest scenes in film history.  It was plenty large enough (at the time) to accommodate all of the available cantina figures, with room to spare.  It had the bar, the distillery, a couple of alcoves, and space for the band and other various scummy and villainous patrons.  The sandtrooper?  Yeah, he was okay for about 5 minutes.  I should have tossed him in the trash, but my OCD would not allow that to happen.

At first glance, it looks like the same figure as the POTF2 carded Sandtrooper.  However, a closer look shows that the legs and forearms/hands seem to be positioned a little differently.  This version has less of an awkward lean, while also able to hold the included rifle accessory in a “ready” position.  The backpack is nixed in exchange for a probe droid, which was created specifically for the Special Edition of Episode IV that was released in 1997.  The accessory is a pretty good approximation of the CGI droid shown on film.  It “floats” via a clear arm, bent at 90 degrees, which plugs into the horizontal slot left by the absent backpack.  It’s executed fairly well.  All that is well and good, but obviously the figure (and the droid) have been rendered obsolete by more modern interpretations.  As a famous Sandtrooper once said, “Move along…move along.”

Now this cardboard diorama was originally released as a mailaway offer, which apparently you could participate in via the Spirit of Obi-Wan figure promotion.  Since I missed it in real time, and I don’t precisely recall the circumstances, I’ll have to take Mr. Curto’s word for it on how it went down.  This mailaway version was just the cardboard diorama, and no figure.  But the diorama was re-released to the general public at retail, including the sandtrooper figure, which is the one I picked up for my collection. The diorama is nicely designed, where it folds flat and compact.  It unfolds very easily, and requires a few tabs to be put into corresponding slots.  In a minute or two, you have yourself a surprisingly excellent 3-D version of Chalmun’s Cantina.  It’s not exactly accurate, but that’s partly for “toy” reasons, and partly because of the multiple sets used during production which mean that what you see on screen doesn’t always meet the smell test when you try to draw out the floor plan. 

The brilliance of this diorama is that it fits on a typical bookshelf, and provides a reasonably good backdrop for most of the figures from the scene, even today in 2020.  Now if Hasbro were to design a collector grade plastic cantina, it would need to be a bit larger to accommodate every figure, just like the Sail Barge does this for all the figures from that scene.  But considering this was made last century, it’s amazing how well it holds up. 

Hasbro also decorated the back side of the diorama to replicate the streets of Mos Eisley.  So if you have the proper display space for it, you could fill the cantina with the approximately 45+ figures that go inside, and also a substantial smattering of figures, beasts, vehicles, and accessories that can go outside.  As Anakin once said, “Now THIS is world building!”

I performed a bit of surgery on my original cardboard diorama to remove the bar to make room for the plastic sections that were released later.  As such, I had decided to go back to Ebay at some point and acquire the mailaway version, which I still have, almost untouched, today.  It makes me feel better about my past butchery.  People can change!

So I’ll give this a 6, because it’s hard to go wrong with it.  But at this point in time, Hasbro really should be considering a way to give us a collector-grade, movie accurate, plastic cantina.  But until then, you should definitely have this in your collection.  Once again, the sandtrooper is the gun, and the diorama is the cannoli.