Imperial Dogfight TIE Fighter - SW [S - P2] - Vehicles (Exclusive)

Bursting from Imperial hangar bays in gnat-like clouds are the standard starfighters of the Imperial arsenal – the Twin Ion Engine craft known as the TIE Fighter. The single-seater short-range vessel lacks a hyperdrive, and as such requires deployment from launch bases and capital ships. It features two fire-linked laser cannons chin-mounted on the ball-shaped cockpit. Though TIEs presented a formidable challenge to pirates and civilian craft, the skilled pilots of the Rebel Alliance made short work of them in combat. Imperial TIEs swarmed around the first Death Star, engaging Rebel Alliance X-wing fighters in fierce dogfights as the Rebels attempted to destroy the massive weapon.

What a piece of junk! That’s precisely how we feel about the 2002 Star Wars “Saga” Imperial Dogfight TIE Fighter KB Toys exclusive. Yeah, that’s a mouthful, but so is the load that Hasbro has attempted to shove in the faces of retailer KB Toys and collectors. It’s always nice keeping Original trilogy vehicles in the line. And for the most part Hasbro is great at keeping them fresh year by year. But this overpriced exclusive given to a retailer that really needs a potent exclusive to make it worth their while is something that just won’t move as briskly as KB Toys needs it to move. Why is a standard TIE Fighter vehicle getting packaged in a way that it retails for almost $30? All-new vehicle exclusives, like the TIE Bomber in the Power Of The Jedi line only retailed for $29.99 and that was a completely new sculpt. Something is awry here and collectors don’t appreciate it. The Imperial Dogfight TIE Fighter should have been developed to be part of the mid-size vehicle assortment and sold generally across all markets. The pack-In figure doesn’t warrant an additional $10 to the price tag.

As you can see, this exclusive has us irritated. This is not the way to do exclusives. Besides, how many times have collectors asked for larger wings? We really don’t need another rehash so soon. Packaged in a completely different styled box than what most of us are used to, Hasbro packs the Imperial Dogfight TIE Fighter in a way so that it’s fully assembled right in the box. OK, so we have to hand it to them there. It looks cool displayed like this and those that may be on the fence about opening these types of toys may have new reasons to keep this one sealed. The same mold from the 1995 The Power Of The Force line has been reused. Aside from getting a new paint job, there isn’t anything more you should expect here. As you know, the wings are too small, but it’s not the end of the world for some collectors. Still, many are waiting for that definitive update. Again, $29.99 for a $19.99 vehicle and essentially worthless pack-in figure is a tough bitter pill to swallow. Were just not on board with this release. It would have been better if it just wasn’t released at all.

As mentioned above, the Imperial Dogfight TIE Fighter comes with a pack-in action figure. Hasbro has once again has included the Imperial Pilot originally from 2001’s POTJ TIE Interceptor and also from 2002’s POTJ TIE Bomber for this release. At this point, one might consider this adding insult to injury. It’s a terrible figure and not worthy of inclusion at this point in the game. Again, an all-new sculpt is required. Even an all-new pack-in figure would have made this re-release (and MSRP) that much more palatable. Something has got to give at this point. Thankfully, KB Toys had many other cool exclusives besides this one which was great. It just that it irritates us when these types of exclusives even get considered for release. Then an unsuspecting retailer like KB Toys may not know the specifics of the contents. After all, they probably just think that they should jump on a new Star Wars exclusive. The bottom line is that we don’t think this was a wise exclusive idea for either Hasbro or KB Toys. Better stuff will come, but this one was an rather unpleasant surprise.