TIE Fighter - SW [S] - Vehicles

The standard starfighter of the Imperial Navy, the TIE fighter roars through space propelled by twin ion engines. Large hexagonal solar panels bracket the small, spehrical cockpit, in which sits a skilled Imperial pilot ready to strike.

Star Wars collectors never know when Hasbro is going to throw them a golden nugget of goodness their way. For 2018, it came in the form of the Star Wars [Solo] TIE Fighter, an item without any formal announcement (until way after the fact). The TIE Fighter is an item that should have received one promotional accolade after another by Hasbro enticing everyone that they'd likely want one, and they should have hyped it and advertised it as one of their most fundamentally relevant Star Wars vehicle in years. Part of the 5POA Force Link 2.0 line, the TIE Fighter takes the spirit of the vintage Kenner release along with the technology of the Legacy Collection/The Vintage Collection versions to create an all-new take on a classic vehicle. It might be their best work yet on this vehicle from the Battle of Yavin. There is much debate on whether the extra large wings on The Vintage Collection Imperial TIE Fighter [Star Wars] vehicle are too big. But this new version almost answers that. Hasbro may have nailed the appropriate length of the vehicles with this release. And even if they might be too small, the toy looks so incredibly fantastic that you’re not going to care much about the imperfect scale. With an all-new break-apart feature and gorgeous new detail, the Star Wars [Solo] TIE Fighter is one of the freshest looking vehicles to enter the Star Wars line in many, many years. The darker gray color may be slightly alarming, but we’re beginning to believe its very close to screen-accuracy.

For us, the Star Wars [Solo] TIE Fighter is amazing, stunning, and every other positive adjective you can think of possible. Perhaps its greatest accomplishment is that Hasbro cast the wings in a very durable and rigid material that prevents the wings from bowing. Hasbro also moved away from the inferior and bendable plastic that ruined most of the vehicles from The Force Awakens, Rogue One and Star Wars [The Last Jedi] lines. Collectors will be happy to hail the TIE Fighter as a quality vehicle and be proud that it is an important addition to their collections. Hasbro implemented the same break-apart wings feature. But they also worked in a battle-damaged feature where the cockpit splits in half (unevenly) to recreate some kind of impact, crash or blast victim. It’s almost as if someone took a lightsaber and split the cockpit completely in half. If you inspect the detail along the "break line," you’ll see how much work went into ensuring that the cockpit could be easily broken down and restored while looking complex and accurate as it did sustain some damage. Any battle-damaged feature creates an amazing amount of play value for kids. And collectors can create some impressive display scenarios. We’ve never had a TIE Fighter vehicle with this much of a realistic battle-damage feature. You’re going to love it. And we have to say we’re digging this TIE Fighter a little bit more than the larger previous versions.

It’s important to note this all-new sculpt captures the magic of the vintage Kenner vehicle while offering fresh new tooling details. The final vehicle looks great. Get ready to pick up your jaw from the floor. Between the all-new battle-damage features and the resized wings with rubber running along their perimeters provide a fantastic new representation of this brilliant Star Wars vehicle based on the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. We should also mention that the vehicle comes with Force Link 2.0 technology which provides cool sound effects for extra play features. Also in the box with the TIE Fighter is a TIE Fighter Pilot pack-in figure. The pack-in figure is another nice addition to this release. Hasbro repainted the figure from 2016’s RO TIE Striker vehicle, and it looks like one of the pilots from the Battle of Yavin. While a simply articulated figure, the TIE Fighter Pilot has a fantastic sculpt. What’s more, it fits into the new cockpit of the TIE Fighter perfectly. It also comes with a blaster that fits nicely into the figure’s right hand. We're quite taken with this release. It’s overpriced at $39.99, but it’s also new and exciting, and it allows us to forget the sting of the MSRP a little bit. We hope that Hasbro keeps this quality of vehicles coming. It’s not an exaggeration that we haven’t seen a quality vehicle like this in years (in the kids’ line of course). But we hope Hasbro keeps them coming!