Star Wars

Imperial TIE Fighter

The best minifigure-scale TIE Fighter LEGO had made, and the price history proves people knew it.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 75211 · 2018

Pieces519

Minifigs4

Year2018

Set number75211

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The verdict

This is the 2018 Solo version of a shape LEGO has been refining for years, and honestly they nearly nailed it here.

The hexagonal wing panels are big printed pieces that catch the light like real radiator panels, and the whole thing feels solid enough to actually swoosh around the room without a wing popping off. The catch was always the price, seventy dollars felt steep for something this compact when it was new. If you find one at a fair price now, or you already own it, you have a genuinely lovely little Imperial fighter.

Best for: Star Wars fans who want the definitive small-scale TIE Fighter with four exclusive figures

The full review

What it is

I have a real soft spot for the TIE Fighter, and this 2018 release from Solo: A Star Wars Story is the version where the shape finally clicked for me. The pod is rounder and more accurate than the versions before it, the wings sit at the right angle, and those big hexagonal panels are printed rather than stickered, so they read as proper radiator panels instead of flat plates. What got me is how solid it feels in the hand. You can pick it up by the pod and swoosh it around and nothing sags or snaps off, which for a ship this shape is genuinely not a given.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the two things that gave people pause. The first is price. At seventy dollars for 519 pieces, this was never a value darling, and plenty of reviewers said out loud that fifty or fifty-five would have made it an instant recommendation. The second is the build itself. It moves quickly, around half an hour, and once you get past the small command pod and the pylons there is not a lot of engineering to chew on. This is a set you build to display and play with, not one you build for the puzzle of it.

Who it's for

If you love Star Wars ships and you want the definitive small TIE Fighter with a cockpit that actually opens, this is the one to hunt down. The four figures sweeten it a lot, especially if you care about the Solo film. If you are chasing clever building techniques or you want the most bricks for your money, this is not where I would point you, and the current collector prices make an impulse purchase tricky. But as a shelf piece and a play piece, it holds up beautifully.

The parts story

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

Building this is a calm, pleasant half hour with almost all of the interesting work packed into the small command pod. You assemble the sphere, hinge in the access hatch on top and the trans-black viewport on the front, tuck a pilot seat inside, and clip two spring-loaded shooters underneath where you would never guess they were hiding. The wings and pylons go together fast, which is the part that leaves some builders wanting a bit more meat, but it does mean the finished ship is rock solid.

The standout pieces are those large printed wing panels, which do the heavy lifting on the movie-accurate look without a single sticker in sight. The figures are where the parts really shine, though. All four are exclusive to this set, and the Mimban stormtrooper wears a brand new helmet mold with detail both printed in multiple colors and molded right into the accessory. Han Solo in his Imperial mudtrooper disguise borrows the General Veers helmet mold, a nice little reuse. With every figure locked to this box, the part-count value has aged into something collectors chase hard.

Fun facts

01The set is drawn from Solo: A Star Wars Story, and all four minifigures, the TIE pilot, Han Solo and Tobias Beckett in Mimban mudtrooper gear, and a Mimban stormtrooper, are exclusive to this box.
02It launched in April 2018 at 69.99 dollars and retired in August 2019, and sealed copies have since climbed well past 200 dollars on the secondary market.
03Reviewers widely called it the best minifigure-scale TIE Fighter LEGO had produced at the time, praising how sturdy and swooshable it is compared to earlier versions.
04The two spring-loaded shooters are tucked completely out of sight beneath the cockpit pod, so the ship keeps its clean silhouette until you need them.