Review: 4479 TIE Bomber
Posted by CapnRex101,
Among very few Original Trilogy models never revisited by LEGO Star Wars, a minifigure-scale TIE Bomber is undoubtedly the most notorious. 4479 TIE Bomber became available nearly two decades ago, when LEGO TIE Fighters differed drastically from modern designs!
Following the long-awaited unveiling of 75347 TIE Bomber, it seems fitting to revisit the original TIE Bomber from 2003, which has achieved celebrated status. However, maybe this reputation results from nostalgia, rather than quality.
Summary
4479 TIE Bomber, 230 pieces.
£27.99 / $30.00
4479 TIE Bomber definitely shows its age, but captures the necessary features
- Accurate proportions
- Good functions
- Fragile construction
- Odd colour distribution, in places
Minifigure
The original TIE Fighter Pilot minifigure was introduced with 7146 TIE Fighter in 2001, before returning in control of this TIE Bomber. The standard Stormtrooper helmet was moulded in black for the pilot, which was an understandable decision, but is not wholly effective. The shape of the helmet is difficult to distinguish with such limited decoration, although the metallic silver Imperial insignia are accurate.
I like the torso though, featuring the necessary life-support pack and a simple belt. The design was actually only replaced in 2013, in 75008 TIE Bomber & Asteroid Field, which is testament to its excellence. No accessories are provided, but pilots were rarely armed during the early years of LEGO Star Wars.
The Completed Model
LEGO created a consistent design style and colour scheme among TIE-series vehicles between 1999 and 2008, with 10175 Vader's TIE Advanced as the sole exception. This model accordingly features blue accents. Those on the solar array wings are effective, starkly contrasting with the black plates, but I dislike the blue pieces on the fuselage.
The construction of these TIE Fighters was also similar, relying on Technic pins to link sections of the fuselage and the solar arrays. The resulting structure is notably flimsy and this example is worse than most, although sections will not come apart accidentally. In fact, I enjoyed detaching the wings when playing with 7263 TIE Fighter as a child, to simulate an explosion!
While not particularly strong, the twin pods are ideally proportioned. I love the asymmetry of the bomber and the printed elements on the ordnance pod are superb, recreating the braces which flank the missile aperture on the original vehicle. The designer, Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, thus positioned a Technic missile launcher neatly inside this secondary pod.
The rubber-tipped missile easily pushes aside the decorated flags in front of this launcher when fired, so works well, although I doubt such a building technique would be considered acceptable today. The absence of controls inside the cockpit is also surprising, but there is ample space for the minifigure.
Some awkward colours appear at the rear, including tan elements beside the liberal distribution of blue, dark grey and light grey. Nevertheless, the shape remains accurate and the use of 4x4 dishes with trans-blue 2x2 dishes at their centre matches other TIE Fighter sets released during the early and mid-2000s, again demonstrating welcome consistency between them.
No bomber would be complete with a bomb-dropping function and pulling a section at the rear of the fuselage releases three trans-blue 1x1 round bricks from inside, albeit not via the bombing chute. These are loaded through a hatch on top and a rubber band closes the bomb bay door after release, which works nicely. Even so, more modern sets have proven that similar functions can be simplified.
The solar array wings immediately distinguish TIE-series models of this era, including blue parts and lacking a frame around the edge. While more recent designs are certainly more accurate, I appreciate the uniformity and clean lines of older models, not to mention their inherent nostalgic charm! The use of printed Imperial emblems is also interesting, approximating the six-pointed solar energy convertors present onscreen.
Overall
4479 TIE Bomber understandably receives credit because it has been the only minifigure-scale TIE Bomber for almost twenty years. However, I think the design impresses on its own merits as well, most notably given the clever integration of functions within limited space. The shape of the wings and cylindrical pods are equally authentic.
The fragile structure cannot be overlooked though. Admittedly, this kind of construction was very common in 2003, but it bothered me as a child and continues to do so today. The distribution of blue elements on the fuselage looks odd too. Somehow though, this iteration of the TIE Bomber remains enjoyable, partly because its flaws are representative of many Star Wars sets produced in the early-2000s.
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41 comments on this article
To someone who is not an expert on Star Wars ship design, the blue is jarring.
I mean, it’s not a bad model. Also it’s $234 less than the new one.
Was about to go crazy saying 'How on earth a couple of minutes after it was revealed!?!', then saw it's the old one.
I have this one! The functions were very fun as a kid. It's still built on my shelf with just a couple tiny modifications. And I totally agree, the connections between the pods and wings are weird.
I must say the official reveal looked better. And where are all the other figur... oh wait, nevermind.
This is a very nice model though and I am glad it finally got remade :)
Man. It's sometime in 2003, I'm 20 years younger, and I'm finding this in a Walmart and am totally wowed.
It's blocky and blue, but as far as parts available in 2003, it's not bad.
Thanks for doing another classic review! TIE Fighters look quite blue in the movies, so I think the color choice made sense!
I have this one.
I may pick up 75347 if it's discounted.
What I really want is a UCS TIE Bomber.
Well, what a wonderful news that we will be getting a new one.
(hashtag)BringBackTheBlue
Yes, the color distribution is a bit nuts on this one, but please, there are enough just purely gray things in LEGO Star Wars, it's the running joke, it's the biggest complaint, and sure, a lot of that comes from the source material, but the blue really helps it become a fun toy that has a bit more life to it, even if the Empire isn't supposed to be encouraging such liveliness. Even if it's just allocated to the solar panels and a couple key spots on the body, it would go a long way, and I'm not talking about Sand Blue. Sand Blue is also a nice color, but I want something that won't blend in with the gray. Sand Blue works best when it's a major color in the pallet, like for the Bad Batch Shuttle, and I'm grateful LEGO went that route than with just plain light and dark gray for the Havoc Marauder, although perhaps nice full lines of Sand BLue wouldn't look bad on a TIE Fighter because it's also not entirely inaccurate if you're going frame by frame in the movies. While I boycotted the 2019 20th Anniversary sets, I did also appreciate that the Imperial Dropship was Dark Blue. That's kind of the other extreme and it wouldn't work often for classic ships, but it was a nice compromise for their original design to make it fit the modern era.
(hashtag)BringBackTheBlue
I've never understood how people saw TIE Fighters as blue in ESB and RotJ. I wonder if it's the same phenomenon as the famous white-gold/black-blue dress?
@ra226 said:
"I've never understood how people saw TIE Fighters as blue in ESB and RotJ. I wonder if it's the same phenomenon as the famous white-gold/black-blue dress?"
A lot of Star Wars toys in the 1997-2005 range portrayed TIEs as a light blue. This is much deeper than that, but people saw it.
I actually really liked the blue on it, makes it look like maybe the pilot was the member of a special squad. The new one is accurate, but I really wish it was bigger. It's gonna look baby sized next to my Tie Fighters and X-Wings from 10 years ago
Seeing as there is two decades between the first rendition and this second rendition...one really gets to see the stark contrast and just how far Lego has come along since Lego Star Wars began (almost 25 years now)
@mkrey said:
"(...)
What I really want is a UCS TIE Bomber."
And we were so close!! I still feel robbed whenever I hear mention of that oversized clone transport gunship thing...
I now have visions of a young @CapnRex101 being "bothered" by the fragile structure of this set ;-)
Cheeky to review it now. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!
I always love the amount of functions they managed to cram into sets from this era. It's so nostalgic!
Fun fact, technically 2003 saw the release of TWO TIE Bombers. There's also the mini model from the four smaller Mini Sets.
And technically the last one was either the planets model or one of those magazine gifts. Trivia section: over.
@ra226 said:
"I've never understood how people saw TIE Fighters as blue in ESB and RotJ. I wonder if it's the same phenomenon as the famous white-gold/black-blue dress?"
A gray/blue is the color they were painted. https://modelermagic.com/tie-fighter-studio-model/
Which is probably the reason they went with blue. Gray is more accurate to how they appear on screen after color grading. But I suspect LEGO may have had pictures of a filming model. Maybe they were in the "Chronicles" book.
Or perhaps they were referencing the Kenner/Hasbro toy.
I still want to get this, just to complete my collection of original blue TIEs.
When MandR inevitably does his TIE Bomber comparison video, I’m sure this one will get the point for playability.
Still the only TIE Bomber I have.
I’m eagerly awaiting the new one, and crossing my fingers that an Interceptor is next!
@bananaworld said:
"
@mkrey said:
"(...)
What I really want is a UCS TIE Bomber."
And we were so close!! I still feel robbed whenever I hear mention of that oversized clone transport gunship thing..."
As much as I love the Republic Gunship, a UCS Tie Bomber is very cool too.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Man. It's sometime in 2003, I'm 20 years younger, and I'm finding this in a Walmart and am totally wowed.
It's blocky and blue, but as far as parts available in 2003, it's not bad."
I loved this too when it came out.
But, I'm wowed that our good Cap'n was a child in 2003. Who's leading our motley crew anyway? Then again, I suppose that makes him almost 30. Time for new blood! The double bind of age. Just when you stop being too young, you're too old.
Speaking of the old one, I have a shelf of blue Imperial forces. It looks quite nice. Their parts are old and their rubber bands are sqeaky, and they grumbled tremendously when they had to shove over to make room for 75185. But, they've settled down, and they all get pea soup on Wednesdays.
The ordinance on the old one is far superior to the new one (downward firing flick missles). Boo!
@bananaworld said:
"
@mkrey said:
"(...)
What I really want is a UCS TIE Bomber."
And we were so close!! I still feel robbed whenever I hear mention of that oversized clone transport gunship thing..."
In hindsight the designs for the bomber and Nebulon-B probably would have been more satisfying even if the demand was lower
A huge advantage this has over the new one is that the pilot can actually see.
I mean, yeah, it’s somewhat more fragile than modern models but it’s not like it falls apart from so much as a feather (original Droid Fighter I’m looking at you) or would be pulled apart by its own functions; that bomb dropping feature worked pretty smoothly and the missile suddenly bursting loose was great fun. This was a great addition to the growing fleet child me had!
@dark_faces said:
"I now have visions of a young @CapnRex101 being "bothered" by the fragile structure of this set ;-)"
I did not actually own this set as a child, but I did own 7263 TIE Fighter, which uses the same wing connections. I absolutely remember being bothered by their wobble, although the ease of detaching the wings was also fun, as mentioned in the review.
There's something special about those first years of Star Wars designs, they have more of a Toy feel to it.
Alternate builds shown on box also helped to make those older set more toy like and less serious.
Right now, the fun and not so serious builds still are seen in the microfighters of course, a sets like 75344: Boba Fett's Starship Microfighter make perfect use of newer parts being available to get the shape and colors in a modern way, yet looks blocky enough to have that toy look to it as well.
"In fact, I enjoyed detaching the wings when playing with 7263 TIE Fighter as a child, to simulate an explosion!"
That's not a bug, it's a feature!
Old Lego is ugly. Experience and new parts over the years have just added incredibly to Lego designs. New Lego generally (with a few exceptions) blows old Lego out of the water.
I love the blocky charm of the standard old school LEGO TIE Fighter, but it never looked the same on this one. Too flat.
@ra226:
Conventional distinction is that the TIE Bomber and TIE Interceptor are a slightly blue shade of grey, while the original TIE Fighter and Vader's TIE Advanced are more neutral grey. You see this played out more often when a toy line has the option of picking their exact paint colors.
@Montyh7 said:
"Old Lego is ugly. Experience and new parts over the years have just added incredibly to Lego designs. New Lego generally (with a few exceptions) blows old Lego out of the water. "
Maybe, but if we'd never had old Lego, we couldn't have new Lego!
@ItisNoe: I saw the review before I saw the reveal, and I was like, "There's a new TIE Bomber set? Sweet!" then saw that it was the old one. Then I scrolled down and saw that I hadn't been wrong.
@StyleCounselor: I was picturing the Cap'n as around my age, and I was already an adult (admittedly a young one, as I was nineteen) when Lego Star Wars started.
Re: gray vs. blue TIE fighters:
My copies of Empire Strikes Back clearly show the TIE fighters and bombers in the asteroid field as blue, and the TIE fighters in Cloud City as white/gray. And not the re-re-re-re-re-releases of the movies over the years; these are the original from VHS. It's not a subtle color shade either; in ESB those TIE fighters in the asteroid field are clearly blue with black highlights. Maybe it was to contrast them against all the gray rocks in the background, or just a mistake by the model makers? In any case, blue TIEs, especially from ESB models, are accurately portrayed as blue.
@woosterlegos said:
"To someone who is not an expert on Star Wars ship design, the blue is jarring. "
I've always wondered why the early TIE fighter sets had the black and blue color scheme. Even the UCS TIE Intercepter had the blue highlights.
I wonder if the had concerns about releasing sets that would have been largely just grey.
Earlier designs, i.e. those 10years + ago like this one, are focusing on Playability and Configurability. It's blocky with joints and functions, with studs on top, and essentially these elements encourage kids to have fun with it, expand it with mods. Unlike Display Only sets, which are now the majority. I will be happy to get this nowadays even if it's almost 20 years old.
@oldfan:
Before Ep5 even released, Ep4 had been modified and rereleased to theaters. It’s hard to keep track of all the variant cuts that have been released over the years. But the three most notable versions, to my mind, are as follows:
1. The original-original cut, as it was shown in theaters on opening day.
2. The THX cut. If you have it on VHS, and it was released prior to the THX box set, the colors were all over the map.
3. The Special Edition theatrical cut. While the current home video version has received further changes, the 1997 theatrical cuts of the SE were by far the most drastic overhaul of the OT to date, for better or for worse.
So, regarding the second one, I got the THX box set when it came out, and there was a companion VHS around the same time that showed some of the results of having THX do a complete cleanup of the then-current version. They included side-by-side shots where you can see stuff like the droids walking through the Tantive IV during its capture. There’s a more silvery protocol droid who briefly appears beside C-3PO. In the previous home video releases, C-3PO looked about the same color that droid appears in the THX release. That’s how significant the color difference was. So, if your copy predates this version, I would not trust a thing about the coloration.
BTW, there was a limited edition DVD release some time back that had bonus discs with each movie. The “bonus feature” for all three films was being able to watch the unedited day-of-premiere cuts of the three OT films.
@TheOtherMike said:
"
@StyleCounselor: I was picturing the Cap'n as around my age, and I was already an adult (admittedly a young one, as I was nineteen) when Lego Star Wars started."
Hmm... so did I. And this is after seeing several items over the years telling me that I was wrong. Interesting phenomenon. Perhaps there's something about the Cap'n and his writing that makes us see the idealized version of ourselves or something resembling it? I guess that's why he's the Cap'n. Salut y salud!
@MCLegoboy said:
"(hashtag)BringBackTheBlue
Yes, the color distribution is a bit nuts on this one, but please, there are enough just purely gray things in LEGO Star Wars, it's the running joke, it's the biggest complaint, and sure, a lot of that comes from the source material, but the blue really helps it become a fun toy that has a bit more life to it, even if the Empire isn't supposed to be encouraging such liveliness. Even if it's just allocated to the solar panels and a couple key spots on the body, it would go a long way, and I'm not talking about Sand Blue. Sand Blue is also a nice color, but I want something that won't blend in with the gray. Sand Blue works best when it's a major color in the pallet, like for the Bad Batch Shuttle, and I'm grateful LEGO went that route than with just plain light and dark gray for the Havoc Marauder, although perhaps nice full lines of Sand BLue wouldn't look bad on a TIE Fighter because it's also not entirely inaccurate if you're going frame by frame in the movies.
(hashtag)BringBackTheBlue"
The TIE Fighters of A New Hope and consequently most media set before it like Rogue One and Rebels are light grey but TIEs seen in Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and most other media set later in the timeline are definitely Legos sand blue. In those cases light grey would be entirely replaced by sand blue and the Model is sand blue with black accents which is already toyetic in my opinion. With the extension of the sand blue parts palette I had really hoped Lego would finally start introducing sand blue TIE models and with it some of the necessary parts like round quarter slopes.
Blue is too strong when the correct approximation of the colors is obvious and Lego allegedly wants to be screen accurate, though that never prevented them from doing bad approximations like sand blue for Boba Fetts jumpsuit which makes the figure look too much like the old Kenner toys while he still appears closer to a light gray in most shots.
More toyetic designs have a place in the line though. I would say the Juniors, 4+ or whatever it's called now starships should have Kenner or Classic LSW color schemes while regular models in the line should stay just as accurate in terms of design and color as the UCS sets.
There's something I love about the old blue tie fighters. The screen models had a very very slight blue tint from what I can tell, and I wish they stuck with sand blue like they did with the first line of minis (3289, 4484, 6965 )
@ShilohCyan said:
"There's something I love about the old blue tie fighters. The screen models had a very very slight blue tint from what I can tell, and I wish they stuck with sand blue like they did with the first line of minis (3289, 4484, 6965 )"
I didn't know Bob the Builder too place in the Star Wars galaxy! (see the first set link)