The Mos Eisley Adventure Set (1997, retail $35.00) is a boxed set including Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley, a 32 page adventure book, a 17 x 22 inch map of Mos Eisley showing the interior of the cantina on the reverse side (in SWMB scale: 1 inch=2 meters), and 12 metal miniatures.
Overall the parts of this set are of excellent quality. Unfortunately, all but the adventure book and the box itself are previous releases. All of the parts are up to WEG's usual high production standards. The box graphics and interior art include some stills from the Special Edition of Episode 4 as well as drawings of Mos Eisley street scenes which are useful references for constructing Tatooine style buildings in miniature scale.
Most of the material in this set relates to the RPG game. The previously published Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley is purely an RPG supplement, containing some good detailed descriptions of the city and some background on Tatooine in general. The adventure book includes four RPG scenarios set in and around Mos Eisley, some additional RPG adventure ideas, RPG stats for the 12 characters represented by the miniatures, one miniatures battles scenario, and two pages of stand-up counters to be copied and used as miniatures.
The miniatures included in the set are all older designs representing the 12 characters pictured on the box: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Greedo the Rodian, a Jawa, one "sandtrooper" (stormtrooper), a Devaronian, "Long Snoot" the Kubaz, a Shistavanen Wolfman, an Ithorian ("Hammerhead"), a Chadra-Fan (the little bat-headed species), Muftak the Talz, and a Gotal. West End originally planned to include some new figures in the set, but the internal difficulties at the company prevented their production.
The SWMB scenario "A Line in the Sand" is not bad, representing a 3-way struggle to capture an Imperial official after the death of the Emperor, but staging the battle correctly presents some significant challenges. The scenario requires a table full of Mos Eisley-style buildings including one large and highly specialized structure, Docking Bay 87, which should be about four feet across. Most of the troops in the scenario cannot be fielded using the available range of miniatures, although paper counters are provided for all of the troops. One side consists of 30 town militia members (rebel, pirate, or Imperial army miniatures might substitute), one force is thirty stormtroopers with rifles (difficult to collect, at only one per blister pack) accompanied by an "Arakyd" droid (spider-shaped, never produced by WEG but available in the out-of-production Droids Micro Machines boxed set by Galoob), and the third force is a gang of 8 swoop riders (never produced, although Micro Machine swooops are available).
While it was encouraging to see at least a little support for the miniatures game, the unusual mix of RPG and miniatures material in the same boxed set seems to reflect WEG's difficulties in understanding their target markets. A relatively small number of RPG players use miniatures, so many of the RPG players who would have appreciated the scenarios in the adventure book would have no use for the miniatures. Many SWMB players might not want to buy the entire set just to get 12 previously released figures and the one scenario. The RPG material is interesting and inspirational for scenario ideas, but ultimately is of limited use to players of the miniatures game alone.
At its original price this set is primarily for those who play both the RPG and the miniatures game, or those RPG players who use miniatures in their role playing sessions. It is also useful for miniatures enthusiasts who appreciate the well-done background materials and who are willing to collect the RPG scenarios or read them as fiction even if they do not intend to play them.
Ironically now that business decisions at West End have led the company into bankruptcy court, some dealers are offering their discontinued products at greatly discounted prices, making this set a good value for all players and collectors.
--Jake B.
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