Review: 6206 Tie Interceptor

[Big Cam]

Straight from the reviews academy we have another lone minifig set where the ship is the real dig's. This is a classic ship that we all know and love and when I saw LEGO made this, I just had to have it. In a perfect world, I would own this set (Tie Collection) as well, but sometimes things just don't work your way.

BASIC INFORMATION:

Set Name: Tie Interceptor

Set Number: 6206

Number of Pieces: 212 LEGO box, 212 Peeron, 208 Bricklink, 212 Brickset

Minifigs: 1

Price: $20 USD

Theme: Star Wars

Year Released: 2006

RESOURCES:

(high res pics available here, also by clicking the image's in the review)

THE REVIEW:

The Box

Front:

Classic box, at least to me. I started collecting in 2006 so this is my bread and butter. Great shot of the ship in action, doing it's thing. (pew pew pew)

Side:

Full sized minifigs as we are getting used to by this time in the LEGO Star Wars timeline.

Back:

Back of the box showing the Cockpit opening and some odd looking alternate models. I must say I really like the lower portion with the advertisment for the other sets. No boxes really make them look more fun.

Instructions

Front:

All can be built with mearly one instruction booklet. Thank goodness

Back:

If you read my last review you would have remembered the parts list on the back of the instructions. Too bad LEGO didn't think of this sooner, lets see what we can mail away for?

Parts Page:

Well, at least the parts list is there. It looks like so few parts for the ship you are about to build.

Contents:

Lots of long blue tile pieces in there, upwards of 30+, as well as a cool looking cockpit piece.

Printed Pieces:

I like the cockpit piece, it may be hard to incorporate into a MOC but I still thinks it's a brilliant piece.

Minifigs

Front:

Hmm, not a very detailed helmet and a boring torso if you ask me. I guess I'm just used to the newer helmets like the clone pilot or even the newer clone troopers. The torso comes in 6 sets total, so I bet most of us have one of these. I guess to me it resembles the old blacktron torso from the space series which is why I'm not too impressed.

Back:

Looks like a sillouette of a regular storm trooper. Nothing at all going on the backside of this pilot, but this happens in some of the cheaper sets. It's not the best but I guess in reality this is more normal than printed pieces.

Helmet Off:

No surprise here, another faceless Imperial. It makes sense for LEGO to do this since 99% of the time your going to play with the minifigs helemt on. One more piece on the helmet, the design is good I just wish there was more printing, since it's black, it's hard to see the details, some printing would have helped this.

The Tie Interceptor

Build Process 1

Here we have the cockpit area complete. This is the entire ship minus the wings. I really like this area because it's simple but there is alot of room in the cockpit, plus those printed pieces looks so good.

Build Process 2

I took this shot with the cockpit glass open because it gets a little harder to see with the wings on. I really like this set up too, the hinge that holds it on is firm and the cockpit glass can be opened and closed with ease. He has alot going on that 1x2 printed control panel piece, I hope the Empire trained him well. I wonder what their budget is?

Wing unattached:

I present you one finished wing, laying flat. The other side will be identical, my hat goes off to the Imperial Engineers. Of course it couldn't be any other way.

Front Right:

The final product is a very clean looking Tie Interceptor. It resembles the movie version quite nicely, and the bright blue pieces really set this set off! It is also very sturdy, I wish I had this set as a kid, it would be a great ship for swooshing or intergalactic star battles.

Left Rear:

Here is the rear angled shot, although TIE stands for "Twin Ion Engines" I only see one thruster. If you would like a little more history on the Twin Ion Engine design, click me.

Front Overhead:

Top view of this agile ship, as you can see there is very little to it, besides the wings and cockpit. This would make it easy to re-assemble if you crashed it during a swooshing incident . Those Imperials sure are efficiant.

Cockpit open:

Here is a completed shot with the cockpit open to give you perspective on the height that the glass goes to once opened. I think the red lights on the glass are to ensure that no low flying tie fighters clip the cockpit when the pilot is getting out, I hear thats a common problem.

Front:

This looks great, the glass is stunning, this reminds me of the trench scene when Vader and his Chronies are chasing down Luke in a New Hope. Also if you look carefully you might see a candid shot of your favorite Star Wars reviewer.

Left:

Yes, yes, I know my labels are wrong on flickr. It's more work than you'd think to change it. Here is the left side completed though. The nice printed Imperial logo sits on what is essentially the center of each wing, it's a nice touch.

Rear:

Another shot in which the ship displays how little there is to it. Although simple, I think it looks really good, I think the thruster could have been a little bit bigger, but I'm a typical guy and I want everything to go faster.

Right:

Identical to say the least. Also you may have noticed the four blasters at the front of the wing tips, Tie Interceptors can go blast for blast with any ship out there, well of comparable size that is.

Straight Top:

Birds eye view, if there were birds in space, I guess. This shows the very nice printed dish piece that rest on top of the ship. It really rounds off the top of the ship, and makes the whole cockpit area looks almost like a globe. Very slick, a flat would not have looked as god in my opinion.

Straight Bottom:

No landing gear, these bad boys simply rest on their wings when not in flight. Since the bottom of the cockpit doesn't touch the ground there is no real reason for any smooth bottom pieces.

Extra pieces:

A red stud, a half technic pin and a single stud tile. Well it's not like we buy these sets for the extra pieces, right?. Then again, every extra piece is a free piece.

Totals:

Design: 10/10 I really like the design, it's simple yet it looks like it should, it doesn't fall apart, and it's easy to play with. I could really see someone buying multiple sets to make a Tie army. The fig may not be my favorite but hey, he's in the cockpit the whole time anyway right?

Parts: 8/10 Lots of tiles, over 30 of them and the cockpit piece is great. It's been in alot of sets (13 to be exact) and can be had for cheap on bricklink but I thought it was worth stating that it's a slick little piece. All the blue pieces in general are hard to come by, so they also contributed to the high score. I think if you used this set striclty for MOC parts, you'd still be happy.

Build: 9/10 Simple, fast, and nothing to confuse you. Plus it's a solid build, the ship stays together and can be displayed with ease. By the time you get to the second wing, it gets a little repetative since the wings are built in two parts and essentially you are building 4 of the same thing, but they are smaller so it's not too bad. If for some reason you wanted to use the cockpit design with your own ship it would be quit easy as the wings are held on only by technic pins. Or if you wanted to expand on the current wings, as long as the technic pins could take the weight, you would have no problems.

Minifigs: 5/10 I am a little dissapointed with this minifigure. I think I am just spoiled by coming into the SW scene late, because most of my minifigs are all flesh colored and have geat detail. This fig is just lacking the printing detail on the helmet. As stated above with examples, I just have many more detailed helmets to compare it to. The torso seems plain to me. Although it is the basic design of a Tie Pilot, so I think I am being too harsh. It just really reminds me of this torso from the old blacktron sets and I can't seem to get past that.

Playability: 10/10 If you can stand to have your ship piloted by a faceless tie pilot, then you'll have fun. It swooshes nicely and as mentioned earlier, is very sturdy. The cockpit opens very easily and there is lots of room for you to get your pilot in there, I even think he could take some luggage with him. Although he doesn't come with a weapon, I'm sure you could fit two blasters in that cockpit without blocking his view. The ship is eay to put back together if broken which is a good feature for playability.

Price: 10/10 This is a few years old so in my eyes LEGO had not gotten greedy yet. I think this is a great price for the number of pieces and the set it builds. Another minifig or a better one is desired but definetaly not a deal breaker. On the other hand 30+ blue tile pieces sure is nice, plus the cockpit piece and printed dish, I think it's well worth the money.

Totals: 52/60 Buy one!! Although the minifig is not my favorite, it's a great set! It looks great, swooshes great, displays great, and most importanly it looks as it should. You get some nice pieces, if your not into keeping your sets whole. If you are, this would be a great addition to any Imperial Army! I am actually regretting only getting one as this was probably the most obtainable Tie ship that LEGO has produced so far. It really looks like a Tie Interceptor, I am confident that if I ask any Star Wars fan what it is, they would be able to tell me on the first try.

Enjoy

[starwarsfanatic]

This was the second set I ever got. (The first was the V-Wing). The V-Wing is tiny, so when I built this I thought it was Huge! Now, though, I realise how tiny this set is compared to some [cough]Death Star[/cough]

[filip skywalker]

Great review! Congratulations to the bronze Silver badge!

Edited October 4, 2009 by filip skywalker

[L-space]

Thanks for the review, a great one of a great set. You gotta love it.

Two notes on the set:

It is easy to create a stand for it like the 7146 TIE Fighter. The bottom is allready shaped for this. It is great for displaying purposes.

Allthough it looks good in blue it even looks better in grey to make it fit to the new Darth Vader's TIE and it is easely moc'ed. Give it a try!

[Big Cam]

Great review! Congratulations to the bronze badge!

Thanks, but I've had that for a while, with the completion of this review, I should have my silver badge soon.

Thanks for the review, a great one of a great set. You gotta love it.

Two notes on the set:

It is easy to create a stand for it like the 7146 TIE Fighter. The bottom is allready shaped for this. It is great for displaying purposes.

Allthough it looks good in blue it even looks better in grey to make it fit to the new Darth Vader's TIE and it is easely moc'ed. Give it a try!

Sounds like fun, I may try this when I dissasemble this ship, which will happen sooner than later. I keep all my sets unassembled in baggies labelled. Until I have a room I can display them in, they are kept in a clean dust free environment.

[filip skywalker]

Thanks, but I've had that for a while, with the completion of this review, I should have my silver badge soon.

Sorry, it was bronze when I saw this review...

[Bricklanta]

Great review! This is still one of my favorite sets.

[prateek]

Great review. I wanted this set, but I felt it was a bit overpriced (Canadian price was a bit high).

Edited October 4, 2009 by prateek

[Ratshot]

Great review Big Cam

One of the many great Imperial sets that I always wanted

I would love to have about 10 of these.

[CommanderFox]

Great Review Big Cam

Great pics as usual

I love this set but didn't get around to getting it

It was very nicely designed and had a good parts collection

CommanderFox

[RileyC]

I didnt like the older TIEs because of the blue trim that they had. I dont really like the TIE pilot either because its limited printing so its looks a bit weird. Great review, I really like your pictures the blue looks great (just the colour but not it being on the ship).

[SWMAN]

I really enjoyed this set. It was great to get a little variety with the Tie Fighters and get a ship that was only seen briefly in ROTJ.

[Big Cam]

I didnt like the older TIEs because of the blue trim that they had. I dont really like the TIE pilot either because its limited printing so its looks a bit weird. Great review, I really like your pictures the blue looks great (just the colour but not it being on the ship).

Thanks for everyones comments.

Roncanator, do address your comment, I pretty much agree. The helmet was a bit of a dissapointment, and although the bright blue isn't the regualr color, it seems to work for whatever reason, I really like it. But I can't exactly say why

[General Magma]

Great review, I had this set back then in 2006. It was a nice set but I broke it down. I want to remake it with grey trim, just can't find all pieces.

~General Magma