[REVIEW] 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter

[JackJonespaw]

If you get it, you get it. Admittedly, not my best play on words, I’ll try again later in the review. In the meantime, let’s talk about -

- uh, yeah. No need to interrupt. 

Set Name: Imperial TYE Fighter

Set Number: 75300

Wait I think I misspelled TAI: 432 pieces

Minifigs: THAI Pilot, NI-L8, Stormtrooper

Or is it TY?: $39.99 | £34.99 | 39.99€

Another year, another TIE Fighter. You know it’s bad when you type in “TIE Fighter” into Brickset and the site says “yeah, but which one, though?” What makes this TIE Fighter better than, say, the 2018 TIE? Well, it’s smaller. But not as small and bad as the 2019 TIE. So, you know, there’s a give and take.

The TIE Fighter is as iconic as the X-Wing (which I'm also doing a review on. Huh. Weird how that works.) Personally, I always thought it should be called an H-Wing, if we’re naming ships after the alphabet. And why do we have to make ships after the Latin alphabet? I want some Chinese or Arabic representation in here. Where’s my  ق-wing? Symmetry be damned.

So this one comes in a box, believe it or not. I’m starting to think it’s a common trend. I figure this is as good a time as any to mention I really like the Lego backdrop on the white. Instead of dramatic Captain Rex or Yoda and his favorite color green. It’s, you know, Legos. And Lego Darth Vader. How’d they come up with this one?

Now seems as good a time as any to bring up my Change.org petition. I’m sick of these gray TIE Fighters. They’re boring to look at, and not even movie accurate. We should go back to the good old days of the blue TIE Fighters. Give me some color in these sets! Please go to my Change.org petition and support me so we can tell LEGO we won’t stand for these gray TIE Fighters any longer!

Play features are few and far between. In fact, all we have are these two missiles. You can tell how sparse a set is on play features by the number of images on the back. Here, we get a whopping 2. Although, apparently you can play as the TIE in The Skywalker Saga, so that might count. I’ll have to go look in the books for a precedent there and get back to you.

Here’s some bags. Three of them. And an instruction manual. Again, most Lego sets tend to have these. Does anyone actually enjoy looking at this picture?

Let’s instead talk about this TIE Pilot. This bad boy’s pretty much untouched since 2010. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Seriously, stop fixing it. His belt is fine. LEGO keeps changing it. It’s cool, trust me. No one cares.

Also, the back of his neck is exposed. That certainly can’t be comfortable. Plus, someone could walk up behind you and flick your neck. And that’s no fun; that’s gonna ruin your whole day.

How about this one? Eh, this one seems a little on the nose. I’ll keep trying, we’ll get there.

Anyway, here’s Bag 1. A cockpit. It feels pretty good to hold. Good weight. Good for throwin’ at pigeons if you’ve run out of stones. Speaking from experience.

Much like a pigeon’s head, the cockpit opens up. You can put a minifig in here. Probably the pilot, but don’t let me hold you back from your dreams. Perhaps one day you can sit in the cockpit!

Now I see LEGO decided to not go with the hexagonal design on the back of the TIE Fighter. Instead, we have something with a few more sides than 6 (infinity more, in fact! Or 0. Depends who you ask. Either way, not 6).

This is a robot. LEGO calls it NI-L8, which is not a thing that exists. Are they starting to put in OCs into their Star Wars sets? I bet he’s the key to an ARG. Keep an eye out on the LEGO Star Wars set canon for more clues. 

Here’s a wing. This is a thing that exists. This is a fine wing, though the middle portion takes up a bit too much space for the scale. It makes the spokes look pretty small. Compared to the larger TIE sets, this issues is easily resolved with a bigger wing. I am curious about the ball socket being in dark blay compared to the rest of the wing. I wonder how difficult it is to have a new color of a piece made. Apparently not worth as much as I’m presupposing.

Anyway, the back showcases a problem no TIE Fighter except the UCS has solved - adding the spokes on the back. I guess it’s not a huge deal, and probably not a problem worth solving. I’d imagine it would make the wings even bulkier, which is not what you want.

You attach the wing, and boom. One half done. Quick tangent, though, before moving on: why does it matter for the TIE to have two wings? Or even wings at all? Wings are made to counter air resistance, which is not something that spaceships have to worry about. And as the engine likes in the middle, cockpit piece, well, that could be the whole ship. You’re just making yourself a bigger target for no reason at this point.

We also get an average run of the mill Stormtrooper. I do like his mildly concerned expression, as if wondering “are we the baddies?” 

Bag 3 holds the last wing, meaning we have ourselves one (1) complete TIE Fighter. It’s not an astounding build, but TIE Fighters, especially the more recent ones, have always been really solid builds - both literally and figuratively. Seriously, I threw this sucker at my wall and nothing fell off. That’s good craftsmanship.

How do we feel about this one? I feel like I should’ve just stuck with the first one. Now I’m just putting up pictures of other things named “tie”.

Here’s our one play feature - the missile. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before. 185 times, actually. Wow, that’s less than I would have bet.

So let’s talk about this thing. The TIE Fighter is hard to mess up, and I don’t think LEGO’s done that. It’s at a cheaper price point than previous models, and size is the only thing that really suffers from it. It seems to be hovering in between a midi-scale and full sized set. But it’ll still look good on a shelf.

The minifigs are nothing special, unless you are just dying to have LEGO’s OC character NI-L8. This really is a case of the set being far better than the minifigs. 

If LEGO’s going to continue to release TIE’s every year or so, then they’ve pretty much perfected the formula with the 2018 TIE and this year’s. I don’t think TIE fatigue has necessarily set in yet, but I could see another set or two exactly like this within the next 6 years really sealing that feeling in. However, for this model, I find it inoffensive enough and a pretty classy looking ship.

A solid 3/5 if I ever saw one. A perfectly fine ship.

Something tells me my opinion doesn’t align with some of you. So let me know your feelings here. Do you think this smaller scale set does it better than older models? Are you sick of these TIE Fighters? Which TIE variant are you a fan of?

Remember, please support my Change.org petition. Blue TIE Fighters start with you.

A thank you to LEGO for providing me with a copy of this set, and Eurobricks for being cooler than a cucumber.

I’ll leave you with a joke:

What does the Rebel X-Wing say to the Empire’s ship while they’re fighting?

I’ve been JackJonespaw.

[Mandalorianknight]

Great review, once again balancing comedy with information. I'll just say two things:

The tie fighter's wings are for atmospheric combat and serve as solar panels, hence why they look like solar panels.

I'd be open to a blue bomber or interceptor as long as it's sand blue and not the bright blue of the 2005 set.

[makoy]

I agree with the short comings of the set -- like the ball joint (Part # 22890, Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Tow Ball on End). Since 2016 that part has always been produced in DBG. Why can't we have LBG?? It has been used in about 100 sets and TLG just refuse to produce this in any other colour for whatever reasons the public won't know.

You missed out the detail that as far as I know, this is the first TIE Fighter that has green flick missiles on them. The previous ones had red, which is the wrong colour.  Yeah. Revolutionary. I know.

The new piece for the wing attachment...I don't know if other sets are using that yet. What's the part number for that?

Having said that, I really think this is a good set for the price. It is smaller than the Solo TIE Fighter (75211) but it is also considerably cheaper. There is no other TIE Fighter at this price range that can attract more fans in the franchise. It can also be a good "army building" kind of set even though the scale is a bit off. Then again, it looks great for what it is.

And for that, this one gets 8 out of 10 on my score. 

 

[furiothecat]

While I won't be buying one, I do like the new scaled-back approach on within this set. Perhaps it will lead to a new interceptor or defender, which I probably would get.

7 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

The tie fighter's wings are for atmospheric combat

If you've read the X-Wing books (I know they're not canon anymore, but their physics seems reasonable for the wacky world of SW), you'll note that the TIE fighters (eyeballs) handle very poorly in atmosphere, compared to X-wings, even though they handle better in space than their Rebel counterparts. Their turning circles increase massively in atmosphere, but they still have the thrust capacity to turn faster, which can result in the fighters breaking apart as the wings are shorn off by the resulting force from the air, if the pilots turn too quickly. This is detailed several times, and one of the pilots (not sure if it was Wedge or Corran) mentions that Interceptors, while still suffering in atmosphere, tend to handle far better in it than their slower H-winged predecessor.

Sorry for the rant, this - the handling characteristics of starfighters - has always been a point of fascination for me.

[JintaiZ]

Thanks JackJoneSpaw for the review.

I agree with the criticisms, but it's still a big improvement compared to previous TIE fighters. I'd probably give it a 5 out of 5...
 

 

[Jack Sassy]

Amazing review! I recently stumbled upon your reviews and seem to be enjoying them with all these little gags, keep up the good work

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Nice set and beautiful review!

[Pirean_Grammaticul]

still not sure how to feel about $40 microfighter and would've still liked a smaller cockpit but regardless a solid model and a solid review; thanks again!

[MKJoshA]

Thanks for the review!

On 12/22/2020 at 6:08 AM, furiothecat said:

While I won't be buying one, I do like the new scaled-back approach on within this set. Perhaps it will lead to a new interceptor or defender, which I probably would get.

If you've read the X-Wing books (I know they're not canon anymore, but their physics seems reasonable for the wacky world of SW), you'll note that the TIE fighters (eyeballs) handle very poorly in atmosphere, compared to X-wings, even though they handle better in space than their Rebel counterparts. Their turning circles increase massively in atmosphere, but they still have the thrust capacity to turn faster, which can result in the fighters breaking apart as the wings are shorn off by the resulting force from the air, if the pilots turn too quickly. This is detailed several times, and one of the pilots (not sure if it was Wedge or Corran) mentions that Interceptors, while still suffering in atmosphere, tend to handle far better in it than their slower H-winged predecessor.

Sorry for the rant, this - the handling characteristics of starfighters - has always been a point of fascination for me.

A man after my own heart. I love those books.

On 12/22/2020 at 1:18 AM, makoy said:

The new piece for the wing attachment...I don't know if other sets are using that yet. What's the part number for that?

Is it the TIE wing they created for the Juniors +4 set?

[Krol Zmija Sebastian]

I like the TYEdye FIGHTER!

[Redroe]

On 12/22/2020 at 7:18 AM, makoy said:

I agree with the short comings of the set -- like the ball joint (Part # 22890, Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Tow Ball on End). Since 2016 that part has always been produced in DBG. Why can't we have LBG?? It has been used in about 100 sets and TLG just refuse to produce this in any other colour for whatever reasons the public won't know.

I believe it has to do with the difference colour makes to mechanical properties although (and I'm not feeling motivated to go on BL and check) I think the dbg of that joint (the ball) does exist on other pieces in light gray. 

Is there any reason however that it couldn't be a standard clip hinge? The hinge is in a slightly lower position relative to the base of the plate but shouldnt make a difference?

Also... I wish they'd stick with the more detailed version of the cockpit print and not flick between that and this slightly blobbier CW style. 

I do much prefer the top dish in light bley than the old dark bley, but I have to ask. Did you put it on backwards deliberately to see if some sucker (hi!) picked up on it?

Edited December 28, 2020 by Redroe

[JaCor653]

The fact that this model has green spring-loaded missiles is inaccurate. If you look at pictures of TIE Fighters, you'll notice that the laser tip is red, but the plama bolts are green. I believe that red spring-loaded missiles are accurate and preferable, because they are visually accurate. I am willing to overlook the fact that the shots are the wrong color if the overall look of them being in the ship is better.

Edited December 29, 2020 by JaCor653

[Kalhiki]

Thanks for the the review! Looking forward to picking this one up. I've passed on previous TIEs simply due to their prices, so this being more affordable solves that problem (same with the new X-Wing). Proportions may not be entirely accurate, but that's an acceptable sacrifice for having a TIE that doesn't break the bank. 

I can only hope the new TIE and X-wing usher in more of these smaller-scale ships. The Slave I would be more than welcome, as would the Falcon if that's even possible.

[wooten]

Does anyone who has this also have 75150 (Vader's TIE and A-Wing). I am curious if the TIE scales are similar to make a good display of the final scene in ANH.