Star Wars

TIE Bomber

A gorgeous Imperial oddball that finally got its due after twenty years, if you can forgive the sticker price.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 75347 · 2023

Pieces625

Minifigs4

Year2023

Set number75347

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The verdict

The twin cylindrical pods are what got me here, and LEGO absolutely nailed the shape, which is the hardest part of any TIE to capture.

This is only the second minifig-scale TIE Bomber ever made, and it looks the part on a shelf. My honest hesitation is the original $64.99 price for 625 pieces, plus a little torpedo cart that feels like filler. Now that it has retired and settled cheaper on the secondary market, it is a much easier yes for anyone who loves the Imperial fleet.

Best for: Imperial fleet collectors who care more about screen-accurate shape than play features

The full review

What it is

I have a soft spot for the ugly-duckling ships in the Imperial fleet, and the TIE Bomber is the classic example, that lopsided, two-pod silhouette that swarms the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back. LEGO had only ever made it once at this scale before, back in 2003, so seeing it come back after twenty years felt like a small event. The finished model earns the wait. The twin pods have that proper cylindrical roundness, the solar panels sit at the right angle, and the whole thing has real presence for a mid-size set. When people say a TIE is hard to get right, they mean exactly this shape, and the designers clearly sweated it.

The catch

I do have to be straight with you about the caveats, because they are real. At its original $64.99 for 625 pieces, this was never a value pick, and plenty of builders said so at the time. The play features are modest too, a torpedo-dropping warhead bay, two stud shooters, and an opening cockpit, and even those feel like they were dialed back so the exterior could stay clean. Then there is the little torpedo cart, a side build that trundles two spare bombs around and honestly does nothing interesting. It is the kind of thing that pads a piece count without adding joy. If you build for clever mechanisms and swooshy playability, this one will leave you a bit cold.

Who it's for

So here is who I would point toward it. If you collect the Imperial fleet and you want a shelf piece that reads instantly as a TIE Bomber, this is the one to get, especially now that it has retired and the price has come down well below RRP. The minifig lineup alone makes a strong case for that crowd. If you are chasing the best pieces-per-dollar or you want a set your kids will actually fly around the living room, I would gently steer you elsewhere, because the value math and the play value both work against it at full price. This is a display set with a collector's heart, and judged that way it is very good.

The parts story

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

The build surprised me in the middle. The hull section has more asymmetry and problem-solving than I expected, so you are actually thinking rather than autopiloting. The wings are the opposite, repetitive panel work that goes together fast and does not ask much of you, which is fine because it means the fiddly bits are over quickly. It is a relaxed couple of hours overall, not a marathon, and the shaping techniques for those round pods are the memorable part.

The real treasure here is the minifig printing rather than any exotic mold. All four figures are new for this set. Vice Admiral Rae Sloane makes her LEGO debut, a character who only ever existed in the novels and comics, and this Darth Vader carries printed arms plus a new alternate face print that fans latched onto immediately. The quiet favorite is the Imperial Gonk Droid, the first Gonk in Imperial grey, with an Aurebesh print reading 'cargo' on its back. It has no real canon basis, and the designer talked Disney into it as a joke, which is exactly the kind of detail I love finding in a box.

Fun facts

01This is only the second minifig-scale TIE Bomber LEGO has ever produced, following set 4479 all the way back in 2003, a twenty-year gap between renditions.
02It marks the first LEGO minifigure of Vice Admiral Rae Sloane, a character who appears in Star Wars novels and comics but has never shown up in a film or live-action series.
03The Imperial Gonk Droid is the first Gonk done in Imperial colors, with no basis in canon, and the designer convinced Disney to approve it as a fun in-joke.
04The set retired in December 2025, and its secondary-market value initially dropped well below its $64.99 RRP before collector demand for the fleet caught up.