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When it was revealed that the third of the three new Star Wars helmets would be the TIE Fighter Pilot, I was puzzled. Against Boba Fett and the Stormtrooper, a TIE Fighter Pilot is hardly that iconic. Pictures looked pretty good, though, so I was left curious about this one. 75274 TIE Fighter Pilot Helmet | 2020 | 724 Pieces USD $60 | GBP 55 | EUR 60 (variable) | CAD 80 | AUS$ 90 ___________________________ This is one of four review topics for the Helmets Collection: an individual detailed build and review for Boba Fett, Stormtrooper, and TIE Fighter Pilot, and an overview review looking at the whole line including the packaging, all three together, value and the concept in general. These sets were kindly provided by LEGO but all opinions are my own. Now, let's dive into the TIE Fighter Pilot! __________________________ Bag 1 Bag 1 has quite a colourful assortment for an all-black helmet, some of the biggest individual pieces to be found in the set, and plenty of foundations for SNOT. The only semi-rare part is the blue 1 by 1 and 2/3 brick with two studs on the side in blue, and you get 14 in this set. The core of the helmet, like the Stormtrooper, is comprised of two semi-hollow levels. That keeps the beginning build moving quickly, and doesn't feel like it's cutting any corners since there's really no need for a fully solid interior. At the end of bag 1 we're left with lots and lots of studs ready for SNOTing, and a teensy bit of the top of the helmet. With Captain Rex for size comparison, you can see the model isn't going to be very big. Rex will continue with us for reference throughout as it takes shape. Bag 2 Somehow I missed taking a picture of the contents of bag 2, but it would've been a bunch of black. The build starts with the stand, which is slightly different from the Boba and Stormie stands because it has attachment points for the gas transfer tubes. It's reinforced through the centre with technic beams. The rest of bag 2 has you attach the core to the base and build the back of the helmet, which is mainly just a lot of plate stacking and not particularly interesting. The height of the model has now nearly doubled. Bag 3 Here we've got a lot of black and a few bright flashes. Some newish parts like triangular tiles, but nothing rare. The eye portion has clever direction changes using the new-ish bracket with four anti-studs on the side, and clips for angling. It turns out well. By the end of bag 3, those eyes are attached as are the tops of each side. Bag 4 Here we've got - surprise! - a lot more black, for the mouth-piece and one side. The mouth includes two of the four prints in the set: two 2x2 tiles with black lines. Almost all the different sorts of small wedge plates also make an appearance. The mouth build uses more interesting colours for no particular reason, and is attached using a dark red riot shield, which has turned into quite a versatile piece - I wonder if the part designer could've anticipated that when it was first created. The side of the helmet entails a lot more stacking with just a few direction changes. Bag 5 Bag 5 simply builds the mirrored other side of the helmet. Here's where it ends up: Bag 6 Bag 6 contains the parts to finish off the tubes, the top of the head, the plaque, and the insignia. The chin section is a fiddly little build with a bunch of small slopes and SNOT, but it comes together nicely. But there's nothing as tedious as threading 18 little train wheels onto a flex tube - twice! And with the Imperial emblems attached and a bit on top, we're done! Here are the leftovers, not much to speak of: Completed Model - Without Stickers This set only includes two stickers, to extend either side of the mouth. I wondered what it might look like without those stickers, since they're quite small and not necessarily easy to apply in an ideal position. Given that the model is so black, to me it looks completely fine without those stickers applied. It doesn't look like something is obviously missing. Completed Model - As Intended Now here it is "all stickered up". The helmet looks quite menacing, like it should, and since it's all black any blockiness or awkward stepping of the parts kind of blends together in your mind when you look at it. Here's the back, in case you're interested. While it's complete from all angles, there's nothing to see back here. The side profile is quite good, though, and shows the interesting interplay between studded and smooth surfaces. In my mind the contrast between the textures makes the studded areas read as fabric, which of course they aren't meant to be, but overall the balance is fine and doesn't look messy, which perhaps is a risk. The stepped bows leading to the tubes are a bit abrupt, and don't look great close up, but from a distance they look ok. Final Thoughts and Rating I opened by saying that on face value, a TIE Fighter Pilot helmet seems like an odd choice for an inaugural line of three Star Wars helmets. As far as subject matter goes, it feels like something that would turn up in a second or third lineup, not the first one. However, having now built it and looked at it for a while on my table from a distance, like one would with these display pieces, I have to say it's a really good choice for the medium and well done. The TIE helmet in universe has a great deal of different angles, all very smooth and rounded, which is obviously going to be hard to pull off in blocky, angular LEGO with lots of little pieces working together. But like I said, since it's all black and there's nowhere for light to go, all of those little bits meld together and look pretty seamless. The proportions aren't perfect, of course, but unless you hold up a picture of a movie still or real-life prop next to it, it looks right. And, above all, it looks cool. Parts: This rating is too subjective to give. If you like slopes, black, and/or SNOT parts, there's plenty here for you, but otherwise it doesn't feel like what I'd call a "good parts pack". Build: 8.5/10 - The majority of it is stacking stuff, and there are (necessarily) tedious sections. Also, while all new pieces each step are outlined in yellow, I found it somewhat hard to keep track of what was being added at times (though I do have a hard-wired tendency to ignore the piece callouts, but I'm not holding that against the set). Design: 9/10 - Besides the areas with the bows leading to the tubes, for which there must be a somewhat more elegant solution even at this scale, the overall design looks great. Overall: 8.75/10 - This model is good. The build isn't the most fun or instructive, but it does the job, and the completed model looks excellent. Plus, it has the most parts of the three, so value-wise it's up there. In my review of the complete series, I'll talk more about value, as well as if I think people want a TIE Fighter Pilot helmet model anyway. Looking at it on its own, I would certainly recommend it for anybody who likes the source material, or wants a cool and mean-looking all-black thing to display. Up next: the Stormtrooper helmet.
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Now for what could be considered the pies de resistance - and without a doubt the most colourful - of this first Helmet Collection: Boba Fett! 75277 Boba Fett Helmet | 2020 | 625 Pieces USD $60 | GBP 55 | EUR 60 (variable) | CAD 80 | AUS$ 90 ___________________________ This is one of four review topics for the Helmets Collection: an individual detailed build and review for Boba Fett, Stormtrooper, and TIE Fighter Pilot, and an overview review looking at the whole line including the packaging, all three together, value and the concept in general. These sets were kindly provided by LEGO but all opinions are my own. Now, let's look at that silent stunner, that clumsy tumbler, Boba Fett! __________________________ Bag 1 Right from the start we're treated with some fairly rare parts. The sand green corner plate comes in only two other sets; the sand green 4x4, 1x6 and 1x4 and light grey brick with studs on two sides in four other sets, the sand green 2x4 in six others, the 6x6 in five others, and the yellow 6l bar with stopper in six others as well. I was most intrigued by that yellow bar, having no idea how or why it would be used. Like the others, the inside of the core is hollow. The structure is naturally quite different. At the end of the first bag, this colourful mess has been built, along with the top of the helmet including the trademark ding (put there by Cad Bane of course, for those in the know). I was still perplexed and intrigued by that yellow bar, having no idea what it might be for. Bag 2 One thing that struck me in this bag was the variety of colours of jumper plates. Here we see dark red, flame yellowish orange, and lime green, and white, dark tan and sand green are also included in the set. I've often seen the argument that it's to aid in building, but the four lime green ones included in this bag could just as easily be dark red or flame yellowish orange and it'd make no difference. I'm not complaining, of course; the more colours the merrier. Maybe it's to use up stock. There's also a 3x1 blue jumper in there, which comes in just three other sets. For some reason the technic beams in this set are yellow, while in the others they're light grey. The head is only slightly taller itself than the base, so once it's added the height of the model suddenly doubles. The rest of bag 2 has you build these bits, which all get added to the back. The main section involves some pleasing offset work with 2x4 tiles on jumpers over the dark red grill tiles. There's also nice offsets on the other parts here. Bag 3 Here we see even more delicious sand green, including some parts still rare in that colour like the 1x2 cheese which comes in four other sets, and the macaroni tile which only comes in this set. Now we finally get to the use of that yellow bar, to attach the stripes on the side of the helmet! The stripe is comprised of two sections attached in different directions, both with lots of offsets achieved by jumpers. You can see more pictures of the individual sections in the album. Next comes a side, which has a black line running down it achieved with the relatively new bracket with four anti-studs on the side. It's simple but smart, and impressed me. Here we are at the end of bag 3, with a side and the back done. Bag 4 This bag contains most of the dark tan of the set, and more of the other expected colours. First to be built is the last side of the top of the helmet, which on its own looks slightly reminiscent of a colour-swapped pokeball. The last part of the side is mostly straightforward. Just missing the face now! Bag 5 Bag 5 feels pretty sparse, with not much left now to go. Thank goodness for that curved cutout 4x4 black plate introduced a couple of years ago - the designer of this set would certainly be in a bind without it. Both halves of the face get attached with the ever-versatile riot shield in dark red. Here's what it looks like without the centre, which gets added separately, followed by the rangefinder and finally the plaque. And here are the leftovers. There seem like too many 1x1 sand green plates, so I was worried I had missed something, but I don't think I did. Completed Model With no stickers included, we can thankfully jump right in. From afar, it looks quite good. Unlike with the TIE Fighter Pilot which has large areas of studs and large areas of smoothness which interplay in a visually obvious way, this one has enough studs interspersed with smooth that they blend together fairly well. As a model and display piece it's of course aided by the fact that the in-universe helmet has a lot going on, so there are lots of different points of visual interest and they are achieved with a variety of clever techniques, like I have detailed. It actually makes you want to pick it up and look at all the sides, and the back is one of the most pleasing angles. The side profile has an appropriate angle to it, matching the source material. Of course, it's not perfect, and the front is actually the most flawed section. The step in the black section underneath the dark red brim looks weird, and I'm not sure what they were going for or why that was necessary. The seams between the dark red tiles of the front portion and the angled "cheeks" is also pretty noticeable, as are the seams at the back of the cheeks where they go into the sides of the helmet. The designer has tried to fill those latter gaps in one place with bows, but that might make the parts that aren't filled even more noticeable. Finally, and most glaring of all if you compare it to the source material, the whole of the proportions are not wide enough and, like the Stormtrooper, match the LEGO minifig Mandalorian helmet more closely than Boba's helmet in the movies, which has a wider face. That said, I don't think most people, myself included, have such an accurate picture of Boba in their mind that they'd look at this and notice that something is obviously off. And there's a play feature to distract you from any flaws. Flaws, flaws, where? Final Thoughts and Rating Boba Fett's helmet lends itself to being a LEGO model like this, what with being fairly angular, and makes a good display piece with its variety of colours and design features. Those features and they way they are executed also make it a fun and consistently intriguing build as a LEGO set, much more pleasing to build than the Stormtrooper or TIE helmets. As I've touched on, as compared to the source material the helmet isn't without flaws, especially being too slender and with certain sections of colours much more pronounced than they should be. Even on its own terms there are areas that look awkward the two levels of black in the visor and the gaps at the very front. To some, these flaws might be on par with those of the Stormtrooper. However, to me, the Boba Fett helmet is flawed doesn't look it at a casual glance, while the Stormtrooper is flawed and looks it, obviously. Boba Fett has always been a a popular character, and with interest in Mandalorians at a high in mainstream pop-culture, I imagine this set of the three is the most in demand. To a casual fan, and as a desk or home display piece on a shelf, it certainly wouldn't disappoint. Parts: I didn't give a number rating for parts in the other two sets because they were so monochrome, so I don't think it would be fair to give one here either, but this set contains a lovely variety of parts including plenty of parts in colours that are still rare and one exclusive, so it's quite good. Build: 10/10 - Really a fun, varied build with clever and well-integrated techniques Design: 8.5/10 - There are the issues I touched on which bring it down a little, some of which probably could have done better, but there's also a lot that's great and well done with the design. Overall: 9.25/10 - It's good and a lovely, visually interesting display piece that does its job well. I recommend it for those interested, and of the three it's the one I'd recommend most for the parts and build experience as well.
