This is probably my favourite Tie Fighter you can get for the price, I mean at $40 this is an awesome build and doesn't stray far from the real deal. The pilot sits snuggly in the cockpit although there's no place to stow his short blaster. The other 2 figures, NI-L8 and a Storm trooper are very nice in detail and make sense to be included in the set. NI-L8 is an exclusive I believe in this set and has coloured wiring exposed in his belly area. Worth the price id almost buy another one.

Set #75300 Imperial TIE Fighter is a great LEGO set but feels like something isn't quite right.

I have one core problem with this set... the wings/solar panels... they seem too short for a TIE. They should dwarf the central ball/cockpit and they just feel insignificant in this build. Other than that, I think this is a fantastic TIE. Let's ignore the fact that all the official photos and even the instructions of this set show the top hatch being rotated the wrong way... that's an easy fix to just swivel it around the other way.

This set comes with 3 Minifigs, a Stormtrooper, TIE Pilot and an Imperial Protocol Droid. All are fantastic and fit in with the set very well.

Pick this one up for as cheap as you can and you're likely to not be very disappointed as it is a fantastic little build... I just wish there was an extra brick or two of height on those wings.

Watch a timelapse build of this set here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os0vBPSPnOU

When I saw that this set was coming out, I knew that I wanted it because it was cheap and it looked like a good tie fighter. A few days prior to this review, I reviewed the Assassin droids battle pack and two days after that, it was the random set of the day which someone mentioned that someone(me) had reviewed that set prior to it being the random set of the day so thanks for that. But enough about that, lets begin!

Building experience- I enjoyed building this set because I like building lego sets in general but I had ordered this on lego.com on New Year's Eve night and it took forever to ship, so I was excited when it finally arrived and I could not wait to build it.

Minifigs- This set includes 3 minifigures which are and imperial tie fighter pilot which you obviously need in a tie fighter. An imperial stormtrooper which you can never have too many stormtroopers, and NI-L8 protocol droid who looks very similar to the one in the 2016 death star but apparently is different.

Playability- This set is extremely "swooshable" as all tie fighters are and it has a fairly small cockpit but I think it is the right size. It also has two spring loaded shooters on the bottom which are fun to use because they can go very far.

Overall thoughts- I recommend this set because it is a great deal and for those who are obsessed with the empire, This is a good set to buy multiples of to make a navy of tie fighters.

The build: quick and easy. The build is split across three bags, with the cockpit made up of the first one and the wings taking one each of the remaining two. That means that two-thirds of this build is wing, and as a result it isn’t the most enlightening build; still, the wing only needs repeating once and they do make use of some clever angles for the spars. The whole thing is solidly built out of a decent selection of parts, some of which are printed – it feels almost odd to have a £30+ Star Wars set without stickers, but they are not missed. 7/10

The figures: three decent figures that on the surface may seem rather dull. Of course, no TIE fighter would be complete without a TIE pilot. The design has not changed a great deal since the new helmet mould was introduced in 2012, and I do wish they would close up the back to prevent TIE pilots getting cold necks and looking odd from the rear. The helmet features silver stripes down the nose as seen in some scenes of the movies – only the second time this helmet has appeared on a minifigure, with the previous instance being alongside 2015’s UCS TIE Fighter. Also making its second appearance is an RA-7 imperial protocol droid, which was previously seen in the UCS Death Star playset. This figure is virtually the same bar some updated printing and the name NI-L8: a name which has appeared briefly in Star Wars Legends, although attached to an assassin droid (appropriate, given the name is awfully close to the word ‘annihilate’). Rounding out the figure selection is a stormtrooper with the polarising dual-moulded helmet, and unlike the TIE pilot, a face that isn’t the much maligned ‘angry clone’. Aside from the TIE pilot this was perhaps the most obvious choice of figure for this set, but since this variant of stormie has only appeared in five sets so far, its inclusion is not unwelcome. 7/10

Play value: about what you’d expect from a starfighter set of this size. The top and front sides of the cockpit can be opened to place a minifig at the controls. Expect them to rattle around a bit when swooshing though: the figure sits only on tiles with only the cockpit roof and window keeping them in, although it’s not so bad as to find them sitting upside-down when you get them out again. Speaking of swooshing, this set is the perfect size to do just that: the spherical (ish) cockpit sits nicely in the palm of one’s hand, and the smaller wings mean it is light enough to chuck around a bit. Two spring-loaded shooters make another customary appearance, and are integrated well enough. I was worried that they would be prone to accidental discharge while flying around given the natural way to grab the fighter is right where the missiles are, but the downward action required has so far prevented this from happening (and I really have been swooshing this thing a lot, even as I write this review). 7/10

Model value: compared to the last imperial TIE fighter that was released alongside the Solo movie in 2018, this version is certainly less imposing as a consequence of the set’s downsize. Nevertheless the newer #75300 does not look out of place when stood next to minifigures or, indeed, other playscale starfighters released over the years. Aside from the somewhat chibi-fied look, there are a few other irritants from an accuracy point of view; while the green spring-loaded shooter bolts are correct to the colour of laser that TIEs shoot, red is a more screen-accurate choice for when they are not being fired. Equally, the dark bluish grey mixel joint on the wings looks out of place and could not be more conspicuous, although I am sure there is a reason it was used over clips and hinges. These are more nuisances than deal-breakers, though, and the end result looks the part when sat next to other ships in the LEGO Star Wars universe. 6/10

Overall verdict: despite its bending of the rules when it comes to accuracy, this is a well-executed rendition of the distinctive TIE fighter with a solid build and equally solid selection of minifigures. Perhaps the biggest plaudit I can give this set, however, is its value: this set has only 80 fewer parts and one fewer minifigure than its predecessor in #75211, and is nearly half the price (it also has an excellent piece-to-price ratio). If you wanted to buy a TIE fighter and an X-wing to do battle two years ago, when sets of both were on shelves, it would set you back a combined total of £155; today, you can do the same for a much more reasonable £80. This will be of great benefit to kids, who are of course LEGO’s target market; nevertheless, I am sure everyone will find a great deal of enjoyment with this set for that price. 7/10

I'm not a huge fan of the reduced size compared to previous iterations, but overall it still looks good. The scale is accurate and detailing is nice, especially around the cockpit.

The minifigure selection is fine. Nothing outstanding but nothing bad: a pilot, a stormtrooper and a protocol droid. The droid feels unfinished without head printing, but otherwise looks good.

Problems with the wings bring the set down. The 1x6 and 1x4 tiles representing solar cell divisions aren't flush with the surface, resulting in a cartoonish look. At a glance the illusion works, but let your glance linger and it falls apart.

More significantly, wing attachment is embarrassingly weak, which is particularly frustrating since the foundation is here for much stronger attachment. The core of each wing is a unique plate with five Technic pin holes, which would be sufficient for tightly-attached wings if all five were used. Inexplicably, only three are used, and horizontally at that. So the wings tend to bow (inward at the bottom on mine). Using three vertical pins instead, or better yet all five, would have completely eliminated this problem.

It's a basic structural integrity failure you'd expect from a child builder but not from a professional designer.

Also, the lovely printed cockpit window doesn't close flush -- it moves one plate-height too far toward the cockpit. Not as big a deal as the wings, but still a disappointing lack of attention to detail.

If you're specifically intending to collect all the new ships at this scale, you're stuck with this. But if you've got the larger previous versions and are happy with them, give this one a pass.