I bought this set with the intention of using the printed panel and the TIE Fighter for a Star Wars diorama that I ended up changing to a Futuron diorama as I began to build it.

This is a cute little set that has two great minifigures, some cool parts that we're seeing here for the first time. The simplified 4+ building process means this comes together fast for kids to get started playing right out of the box.

Parts + Building Experience

TIE Fighter

The TIE Fighter has three large pieces to aid the building, with smaller pieces used to fill out the details and little parts.

The cockpit is made up of one giant piece that forms the bottom, sides and part of the rear of the TIE Fighter. Pieces are used to create the roof, with two large hinged canopies are the front and back to create the bulbous shape of the centre. Smaller, more fiddly parts, are used on the top for some detail so a child might need some help here.

The wings are two gigantic plates with a Technic round pin connection at the bottom, moulded into the bottom of the plate. On the outside of the winds are tiles which are used to create some detailing on the wings.

Side-build

The side-build here is a little panel with a readout of the Death Star, and a little comms station thing, with a radar dish, printed console, all sitting on a small tan plate.

The panel with the Death Star is a trans-light blue panel, and it's printed on there. It's a really lovely printed piece which I could see being used as a screen or display panel in MOCs or a kids imaginative play. The radar dish with the console can also be taken off the side build and set aside separately as it's connected with a 2x2 tile with a stud on top.

You also get two small boxes, with a 2x2 block and a tile on top to represent a box or cargo. They're small, and not very detailed but actually really help to just fill out the scene a bit more and are easily assembled by a kid.

The whole side build comes together very easily, with minimal stress.

Minifigures

The TIE Fighter pilot is amazingly well printed, with really great detail on the torso and legs. This is not some juniorised figure at all, but instead very high quality and I think will look great as a kid matures and it stays in their Lego collection. The Rebel Trooper also looks quite good, if pretty simple and with less detail than the TIE Fighter pilot - the Rebel Trooper is quite amassable too, so if you get a bunch of them together it's easy to make a good looking army.

Playability

The TIE Fighter is definitely swooshable, and a kid would have lots of fun flying this around the house or backyard on adventures. It approximates what it needs to without the possibility for parts to be falling off the set all the time.

On the rear of the TIE Fighter, beneath a grey canopy on hinges are two brackets to attach a gun to or any other tools. This opens up a few more play possibilities.

The wings do wobble on the TIE Fighter due to the way they are attached with Technic pins, and rattle in movement or dogfights. Not sure how you could improve this but I think for a young child, this wouldn't matter. It also lets you break off the wings with minimal to no effort to simulate battle damage.

This set has the added bonus of having a Rebel Trooper included, so you can simulate conflict, espionage, resolution, friendship, all with what you have. A Rebel Trooper manning a comms station desperately trying to get Death Star plans out before being shot down by a TIE Fighter. Maybe he's a spy for the Empire? Maybe the TIE Fighter Pilot and the Rebel Trooper are good friends and meeting up out here in this distant comms station?

I will say that detaching some of the tiles and plates from the large black wings can be really hard to do without a brick separator or something to pull it up with, due to the sheer size of the plate, so maybe just be on hand to help your child out and save their nails and teeth the effort!

Value for Money

For the adults or teens in the crowd looking at this set for its parts, I'd say to give it a look. You get a giant grey cockpit piece that could be useful for, say, a submarine in the style of Aquanauts, a spaceship, a crane - who knows. The canopies could be used as windows or hatches. And of course those giant black panels could definitely be used for all sorts of spaceships, baseplates, floors, walls, etc and I really don't know where else to find these large black angled panels. They're usually going for $2-4 dollars each on Bricklink, at which point I'd say to just purchase the set and get them there.

For a child, this is a great little introduction to Star Wars. You get a story and conflict (or resolution) out of the box. And those pieces become great places to start new constructions like ships, spacecraft, houses, etc. There's a lot of possibilities here, and the easy to start build process means you'll be flying in no time.