Shortly after Funko/ReAction announced their many “vintage style” toy lines, that wascilly wabbit of the interwebz Jason Geyer posted an amazing fake mock-up of a vintage-style Alien Nostromo ship playset, based on the old Star Wars cantina set. I presume Mr. Geyer meant it as a lark, but I thought it was a great idea. I immediately started planning. (I can’t find the link to share the image, but it’s hidden in one of the photos below.)

I had intended to work up some sets for other lines first, but I got to talking with the mighty Tyke, and his enthusiasm for a Nightmare Before Christmas set was contagious. Tyke convinced me the cantina playset would be great for Jacks’ laboratory. He took it upon himself to create the art for the main back wall piece, using screen shots as reference wherever he could. While wanting the art to be accurate, we also wanted it to have that vintage feel, which meant slightly fuzzy and maybe not-so-accurate. (If you’ve seen the cantina art and other old Kenner playsets, you know what I’m talking about.) Tyke did an amazing job reconciling these two disparate directives! Thank you sir!

He shared the art with me for purposes of printing, and I decided to expand upon it. I created some sticker art for the bar, the bar top, and the table. I also added the Christmas tree. But the lack of anything where the door used to be was distracting. So I added Jack’s chalkboard. (I found a great image here. This gal makes amazing props! I would like to make a full-sized chalkboard someday!)

In the end, I think we managed to maintain the aesthetic of the day, and still have a recognizable playset for the ReAction figures. Thanks to Tyke for steering this boat!

(Of course, this is not my first foray into vintage-style playsets, as this AT-TE will attest.)

You can find and download all the art we created for this set to make your own here. It’s all on one 11″ x 17″ sheet. One word of warning: the bar and the table are not square to the floor, so the art doesn’t fit as well as expected. Maneuvering may be required.

Created November 2014.