LEGO® Star Wars™ Mos Eisley Cantina Display Case (75290)

A gorgeous, yet very stressful display.

I love the way this display looks. The printed back panel is perfect, and I adore that I can display the cantina open in all of its glory. Most other companies' displays only work with the cantina closed, and that's incredibly boring to look at. I'm very pleased with the visual/display side of this product. The packaging it came in was also excellent. I had no concerns that I would open it and find a broken product. However, the assembly process was rough. The pressure-locking design of the panels and the way they support each other once they're together is a cool idea, and it probably works great for a smaller display, but this one is huge. The top panel is long enough that it droops in the middle and is difficult to put on top of the side panels, and the side panels don't want to stay together. We almost had to call a third friend to come and help, as getting the top on was hard while we were trying to hold the four corners of the side panels together. It took forever to get the panels together and successfully transfer them onto the base. The whole thing collapsed in on itself countless times, sending us back to square one. One of the side panels even received a small scratch from a collapse, and I'm surprised there weren't many more when it finally finished. I have a LoTR Rivendell display case from another company that has small screws and metal squares in the corners to secure it all together. It also has a ridge on the base that the bottom of the panels fit into, and the panels' bottoms have teeth that fit into the base even further. It's not as pretty to look at because of these features, but it's solid as a rock. I can easily remove the screwed-together panels from the base. This Mos Eisley display, on the other hand, terrifies me. I'm worried it will collapse again if I touch it, so I dread ever having to move the thing, which is inevitable. Maybe the Brickshell team should consider something different for larger/longer displays. I was planning on buying the Barad-Dur display after assembling this one, and I still might because it looks awesome and Brickshell has a great rewards program, but now the thought of trying to get panels like the ones in this display around the tower and onto the base without one or the other collapsing is giving me pause.