Star Wars

Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter

A tiny TIE fighter with a battery pack, and the price tag of a much bigger idea.

Brick Rated Score

3.1/5

Set 75421 · 2026

Pieces473

Minifigs2

Year2026

Set number75421

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The verdict

I went into this one curious rather than skeptical, because a TIE fighter that reacts when you swoop it around sounds like exactly the kind of thing eight year old me would have begged for.

The building is fine, quick, and the Vader minifig with his recolored cape is a nice little addition to the shelf. But once you turn the thing on, the charm gets complicated fast. The sound effects are muffled and inconsistent, Vader's voice comes out as a strange approximation rather than the real thing, and at seventy dollars for 473 pieces you are clearly paying for the SMART Brick and charger, not for plastic. This is a set for a specific kid on a specific Christmas morning, not for a builder chasing value or screen accuracy.

Best for: young Star Wars fans getting their first interactive LEGO set, not adult collectors or value hunters

The full review

What it is

I want to like this one more than I do. Darth Vader's TIE Fighter is part of LEGO's new SMART Play push, where a rechargeable SMART Brick tucked into the model reacts to motion and to little SMART Tags hidden in the minifigures, triggering sounds and light-up effects when you swoop the ship or plant Vader on his stand. It is a clever bit of engineering, and watching a kid discover that flying the TIE fighter around the living room actually makes it react is a real moment. The build itself is small and straightforward, more a vehicle for the electronics than a builder's showcase, but the black TIE fighter shape reads well and Vader's updated minifig, with a new body and recolored cape, is a solid little figure on its own.

The catch

Here is where I have to be honest with you. The sound design has not landed well with reviewers. Vader's voice is not the real movie line, it is described as a strange, almost droid-like gibberish, and getting the effects to trigger reliably takes some fussing with the tags. LEGO's own customer data on this one is rough too, with a notably low percentage of owners saying they would recommend it and value-for-money scores sitting well under three out of five. At seventy dollars for 473 pieces, you are not paying LEGO piece-count prices, you are paying for the SMART Brick, its charger, and the tag system, and that math is tough to love if you are shopping by pieces per dollar.

Who it's for

If you have a young Star Wars fan who wants a toy that reacts when they play with it, and the novelty of the SMART system outweighs a rough patch of audio, this can still deliver a fun afternoon. If you are an adult builder or a value-conscious parent comparing part counts, I'd point you toward one of the standard-scale TIE fighter sets instead, where your money goes further and the detailing does more of the talking.

What works

Genuinely fun swoop-and-shoot interactivity for younger kids, with the turret and TIE fighter sharing a working shooting mechanism
Three builds in one box: the TIE fighter, a small Rebel outpost, and an Imperial refueling station keep play varied
Darth Vader gets a new body mold and a recolored cape, plus a Rebel Fleet Trooper minifig to go with him

Worth knowing

The audio is the weak link, reviewers describe garbled, droid-like Vader sounds rather than a clean voice clip, and getting sounds to trigger consistently is fiddly
At roughly fifteen cents a piece it is expensive for the part count, since a real chunk of the price is the SMART Brick, tag, and charger
Battery life sits around 45 minutes per charge with a 2.5 hour recharge, so play sessions get interrupted

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The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Assembly here is quick and aimed at a younger builder, split across three small models rather than one long build. The TIE fighter itself goes together fast since so much of the interior is given over to housing the SMART Brick, and the Rebel outpost and fueling station are simple side builds that mostly exist to give the SMART Tags something to interact with. This is not a set that rewards lingering over technique, it is built to get to the play pattern quickly.

The standout piece is genuinely Vader himself, who gets a new body mold and a recolored cape alongside the interactive SMART minifigure hardware built into his stand. The Rebel Fleet Trooper is a perfectly serviceable second figure. Part-for-part value is where this set struggles, since a meaningful share of that 473 count and a good chunk of the retail price goes toward the SMART Brick, its tags, and the charging dock rather than toward detailing on the ship itself.

Fun facts

01This is currently the smallest and least expensive set LEGO has released with a SMART Brick included, at $69.99 for 473 pieces.
02The set was designed by Peter Carmichael and released March 1, 2026 as part of the debut wave of LEGO Star Wars SMART Play sets alongside 75423, 75424, and 75426.
03The SMART Brick's battery lasts about 45 minutes per charge and takes roughly 2.5 hours to fully recharge.
04It includes a built-in microphone that is not currently activated, LEGO has said a future software update could enable voice interactivity.