Nice! I've always loved the tie interceptor design, I only have vonregs though.

That box art...

Hang it up and put it in a gallery ... so great

Time for an update!

You can't tell because of the black and white images, but even this UCS set used blue on the TIE Fighter.

(hashtag)BringBacktheBlue

Part Statistics for this beast;

Unique:
2598 10 x 10 octagonal canopy in trans-black with frame print x1
2618 10 x 10 octagonal cockpit base in dark stone grey x1
4095 bar 6.6L with stop in blue x4

Rare:
30154 sextant in dark stone grey x2
4285 6x6 dish with cutouts in blue x2
3960 4x4 dish with TIE print in dark stone grey x1

I Love this Set. Flew me out of my late 90s dark age.....and oh man, does it love a good swooosh!

Not just a regular swoosh either, but the one where you make loud sounds, twist your wrists and dive bomb stuff around you.

Your_Future_President's comment made me look closer, and the box is pretty interesting.

It pulls of that mature and imposing nature that modern 18+ boxes do, but still has subtle background and blueprint like details to make things pop and seem interesting. I was about to write this off as another "you say you like this but criticize it's equivalent" but no, it is ever so slightly different and that slightness gives it an edge.

I had the UCS TIE Interceptor.

I met a girl with the UCS X-Wing.

Of course, we got married.

Back when this came out, I used to take an hour lunch from work, pick up food at a different restaurant each day, and do some toy shopping before heading back. One day I walked into the local TRU, and found this and the matching X-Wing on the shelf, with no advance warning that they were being produced. That rapidly concluded my perusal of TRU that day.

That evening, I started with the X-Wing. It uses 1x1 round plates in both old light grey and old dark grey, but I ended up short one and spent half an hour digging through the pile of parts, combing through the shag carpet in my apartment, and even checking the parts bags to make sure I hadn't missed it. Eventually I gave up and subbed in the spare of the other color (a mismatch which remains to this day). And then I made an unwise choice and popped the seals on this set. It took about 90 minutes to build...and I'd started it about half an hour before when I normally tried to get to bed. And I had to work the next day. Worth it, though.

Funny thing is, this was the first TIE Interceptor model they ever produced. The next one was the Kabaya set four years later, and another two years would pass before the released the first minifig-scale version, rounding out the four canon TIEs.

@Your_Future_President:
The box art is from LEGO Direct. This was right in the middle of their run, and they produced a lot of sets with B/W cover art like this and the matching X-Wing (7191).

@lemish34:
Oh, this one is probably a piece of cake compared to 10179 (especially if you want the 1st Edition box, the outer case, the shipper carton, the certificate of authenticity, and the letter of congratulations).

@PurpleDave said:
"...One day I walked into the local TRU, and found this and the matching X-Wing on the shelf, with no advance warning that they were being produced...."
Oh man, those nostalgic days of rounding the corner of the LEGO aisle to be completely surprised and blown away by a new SW set. Could that even happen now? You would have to willfully live under a rock!

This was my 12th birthday present! I was so ready for this type of Star Wars set, too. After over a year of constant Phantom Menace hype and merchandise focus, I was getting burned out. Star Wars, more than just LEGO itself, had become the focal point of childhood world, and it seemed that unless LEGO really wowed me with something new, I was likely to fall into a "dark age".

While the Roboriders that summer seemed to help, the real solution that took my breath away and kept me still firmly in the LEGO fold was this, the UCS TIE Interceptor. From the moment I saw it and the X-Wing advertised in the mini-catalogs, I knew this was the next big thing for me. I had obtained large LEGO sets before, but they were decidedly System-based, with minifigures and simple to assemble. Here was a behemoth that more closely hewed to the look of the "real thing" from "Return of the Jedi", came in a premium box, and even had a display stand! At over 700 pieces, it would also take the crown of largest LEGO set I would own (the Mindstorms kit not included). After considering the X-wing, I thought it looked too garish with the color palette and also a bit too blocky around the nose. Also, the presence of the R2-D2 minifigure seemed to diminish the scale and "adult" nature of the set. The TIE Interceptor had none of these things, and I wasn't a critic yet of blue and black TIEs in LEGO. Naturally, it became the sole request for my birthday that year.

The box is large, but not very thick. The coloring of the outside isn't black and white, but the colors are very muted. Small shadowy pictures relating to the Empire, including the Emperor seated on his Death Star II throne, can be seen. And inside the box, a large instruction manual that would not be out of place in a modern UCS set. No set designer interviews, but there was background information on the TIE Interceptor with information both from the films and the Star Wars EU. Also, each step had part call-outs like Technic sets of the time. It was all so sophisticated, so I took my time on each step. Kind of had to, in retrospect, because there were no numbered bags back then, either!

I stayed up late that night and finished the cockpit and started one of the wings. Not being familiar with large builds, I didn't think to assemble both wings simultaneously in order to speed up the very repetitive steps on the panels. I finished the set by the weekend, however. The last main difficulty was placing the UCS sticker on the "plaque" made of several 1x8 tiles. I definitely got it off-center and later tried to fix the problem by using some scissors to trim the excess off the top. A wretched idea, since it left a nasty jagged edge to the bottom of the sticker where it then promptly began to peel. But as bad as that turned out, the TIE Interceptor itself was a wonder to behold!

As my most impressive set, it sat on my highest shelf, overlooking the tiny LEGO Town, Castle, and Space sets below. Occasionally, I'd take it off the stand to zoom around my room a bit, imagining I was playing "Rogue Squadron 3D" again and Kasan Moor was just about to defect to the Rogues, taking her damaged TIE Interceptor along with her.

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Interestingly, the UCS TIE Interceptor would remain my only UCS set until I bought the UCS Super Star Destroyer 11 years later! When I moved in 2003, I did completely disassemble the set, but last year, in my pandemic boredom, I took it out again to inspect it. It gave me a lot of memories as I browsed the instructions and checked out the more rare pieces I only every got in that set. Some of the blue bricks got sun damaged, but were mostly easy to replace. But considering the well-worn state of the set, I may never put it up for display again alongside the UCS Slave I or the UCS Millennium Falcon (2017). But I will treasure it, a relic of time where I almost gave up on LEGO because it wasn't making any advanced, affordable, non-Technic (Model Team had mostly evaporated from my radar in 2000) sets for pre-teens like me. In a way, the timing of the release of the UCS sets and my own coming-of-age was perfect, for as I went through middle school, high school, college, and then employment, LEGO seemed to be keeping pace with my changing tastes and interests by releasing BIONICLE, Creator Expert, and IDEAS sets while continually improving the UCS Star Wars and Technic lines. At least for me and my generation, therefore, LEGO really became the toy that grows with you.