Imperial TIE Fighter - TVC - Vehicles (Exclusive)

What does Hasbro do to make collectors cry with joy? It's an easy answer. They release classic vehicles in vintage-styled packaging. It's a shame that Hasbro has only released three vehicles in The Vintage Collection in 2010. Toys R Us got the Imperial AT-AT and now TARGET gets the Rebel Armored Snowspeeder (which is just the 2010 SW [SOTDS] Luke Skywalker's Snowspeeder in vintage-styled packaging) and the awesome Imperial TIE Fighter. The thing that makes the Imperial TIE Fighter special is that this isn't available in the "Shadow Of The Dark Side" line and what's more is that Hasbro threw in a few new surprises which we will outline for you here in this review. The packaging is spectacular and it makes us want to buy up every last one that we see and Hasbro has done an incredible job mimicking the artwork from the late seventies and early eighties on this release. This exclusive has been made for hardcore collectors. But we believe that the look of it will pique interest in those who haven't grown up with the original Kenner line. (And we really hope that this vintage-styled packaging becomes the basis for the line look going forward. (But we don't think we are going to hold our breath for this one.)

Hasbro has cleverly made this TIE Fighter specific to The Empire Strikes Back (toy line). They could have easily used the white Imperial TIE Fighter that has seen release a few times in the modern line, but since this vintage packaging is labeled with The Empire Strikes Back, it makes sense that they used the blue Imperial TIE Fighter instead to pay closer homage to the running change that occurred in the vintage days a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. (This doesn't mean that the Imperial TIE Fighters in A New Hope were white and the ones in The Empire Strikes Back were blue. But it did mean exactly this in the Kenner vintage line years ago.) While Hasbro could have gone cheap on us and given us the outdated cockpit, they have decided to use the recently upgraded version which has seen release in exclusives like the 2009 Legacy Collection Toys R Us exclusive TIE Interceptor or the 2009 LC TARGET exclusive Imperial TIE Fighter. So while the wings are not accurate, Hasbro did given us the new and improved cockpit. (Hey, it's not like we had the larger wings in the vintage days either. So this is more than alright for us.) Inside the cockpit look identical to the previous versions mentioned and of course the canopy has been improved to open and close very easily without falling apart. And it makes this Imperial TIE Fighter look sublime.

This is technically the first time the smaller-winged Imperial TIE Fighter has been made available with the enhanced cockpit. When it comes down to nuts and bolts, yes, the vehicle is aesthetically incorrect, but we dare say that accuracy isn't the point of this release. It's about nostalgia and about buying something "old' at retail in the modern era again. For $24.99, this vehicle is rather reasonable. But like we stated, perhaps the reason most people (all) will be buying this is for the packaging. Hasbro has even included "vintage-inspired" directions and they look so cool. All that is missing is a "vintage-inspired" catalogue inside. This should pull on vintage lovers' heartstrings hard and we bet that most of you who did grow up with the original toys will find it hard to fight against buying these exclusive vehicles. We couldn't resist, but then again, we don't need a sales pitch to buy Star Wars toys. We adore this exclusive Imperial TIE Fighter. The best part is the packaging. But we do love the opportunity to pick up another revised cockpit. We are sure we have other larger scaled Imperial TIE Fighter vehicles from Hasbro that could use this revision if we're so inclined. But whatever we decide, we know that this purchase was worthwhile and one of our most meaningful of the year.