9492 TIE Fighter: the best yet!
Posted by Huw,
Those of you still waiting for this year's Star Wars to be available will have to make do with my mini-reviews for now...
The TIE Fighter is second only to the X-Wing in terms of its iconic stature in the Star Wars universe but all LEGO's previous attempts at TIE-craft have been pretty poor. Not only were the blue highlights totally inappropriate, but they never managed to capture the shape and distinctive structure of the radiator panels effectively.
Not only is this new version correctly coloured black and grey, it also has a grey band round the edge of the panels which makes it look excellent and pretty much spot on when compared to the prototype. My only criticism, comparing it to the prototype, is that they have used the same huge great 6x6 sloped-bit to attach the panels which is far too bulky. I suspect it will be easy enough to modify it, though.
Previous incarnations of TIE-craft have mostly just come with a pilot, but as has become common in recent Star Wars sets, this one comes packed with minifigs, no doubt in an attempt to make it more appealing to collectors. Not only do you get a TIE pilot, but also a Death Star Trooper who's wearing a new helmet, an imperial officer and R5-J2, who we have discussed before.
I highly recommend this set. It's the best TIE Fighter yet and the minifigs are great. As usual though, it is expensive (£50 in the UK, probably $50-$60 in the USA) so you may want to wait for it to be on offer.
More photos are available in my flickr stream. Due to the size of the model they are not quite up to my usual standard: I probably need a larger light tent...
2 likes
17 comments on this article
Looks fantastic!
There is no doubt this is the best ever TIE fighter, I will be posting my review very soon.
It does indeed look rather wonderful and I am very much looking forward to building this in the next few hours.
I would love this now, but I just know it will be discounted at some point. arghhh
The minifigs are just getting better and better!
An outstanding model in both set and figures. Will have to get this one soon (although £50 gbp is rather a lot IMO).
This TIE fighter looks more like a MOC than an official LEGO set, with those silver panel surrounds... :P
HOLY PEANUTS THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!
My review is up : http://www.brickset.com/reviews/?ID=42462
This set is my personal favorite out of this Star Wars wave, and this review really cemented those feelings. I have to pick this up once it reaches the US!
"The TIE Fighter is second only to the X-Wing in terms of its iconic stature in the Star Wars universe".
Sorry?
THE most iconic ship surely is the Millennium Falcon...
^good review CapnRex101. Good to hear it's a sturdy model too...for swooshing...;)
@Duq...I always put the X-Wing Fighter as the most iconic ship for Star Wars, Millenium Falcon next...then Tie-Fighter and Star Destroyer.
Thanks for the input CapnRex101. Do you really own all of those sets?
Lego should make a minifig scale Death Star II
I would say the Millennium Falcon is the most iconic, followed by the X-wing and then the TIE Fighter and Star Destroyer.
@trickydicky0880 - Yes I do, as you probably know the 2012 Star Wars sets were out in the UK about a week ago. I think they will probably appear in the US before the end of January though, an entire month between things being released in one place and another is ridiculous!
Um death star is the most iconic IMO at least.
@sarlacc98 - I think it is widely accepted that the Millennium Falcon is the iconic Star Wars ship by Star Wars aficionados. If you asked someone to name something from Star Wars, they would probably say 'Darth Vader' or 'Millennium Falcon'.
I'm not sure if this is a problem with my computer, or the internet, or this website, but the thumbnail for this set shows the white background picture, but if I click on it to zoom in, it shows the box-cover. Just thought I'd draw whoever's attention to it who needs to fix it if it needs fixing, if you get my drift.