Star Wars

TIE Interceptor

The best-looking TIE the LEGO designers have ever pulled off, wings and all.

Set 75382 · 2024

Pieces1,931

Minifigs2

Year2024

Set number75382

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The verdict

If you love the Imperial fleet and want a proper display piece, this one is easy to recommend.

It nails the spherical cockpit and those aggressive dagger wings better than any TIE model before it, and at 1,931 pieces it earns its Ultimate Collector Series badge. Just know it is a display build first, with some fragile edges and a cockpit you can barely see once it is closed up.

Best for: Star Wars display collectors who want a definitive TIE for the shelf

The full review

What it is

The TIE Interceptor is a 1,931-piece Ultimate Collector Series LEGO® set, and it is a proper love letter to one of the sharpest ships in the Imperial fleet. Released on Star Wars Day 2024 for the theme's 25th anniversary, it recreates that menacing spherical cockpit and the four bent solar panels with a level of curve and accuracy no earlier TIE model got close to. Stand it on the included display base with its info plaque and it just looks the part, aggressive and elegant at the same time. If you grew up terrified of these things screaming after the Millennium Falcon, this is the version you have been waiting for.

The catch

Now the honest bit, because a mate would tell you. At an RRP of 229.99 dollars this is not a casual pickup, and it is very much a display model rather than a play set. Reviewers keep flagging the same things: a few of the exterior details are fragile, so panels can shake loose in transit and are occasionally fiddly to reattach, and there are some small gaps and bulges if you go looking for them. The cockpit interior is nicely detailed, then it gets sealed up and you can barely see any of it, which stings a little on a set this pricey. The build itself can drag in the wing sections too, since you repeat similar techniques four times over.

Who it's for

So who should grab it? If you are building a Star Wars shelf and want a definitive TIE Interceptor to sit next to your other UCS ships, this is an easy yes, and it looks fantastic once it is up. If you are after loads of minifigs or something the kids can actually fly around the living room, look elsewhere, because you get two figures and a model that would rather stay on its stand. For fans of the ship and collectors who care about accuracy, it is a genuinely great buy at the right price.

The parts story

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

Building this one starts in the middle with that tricky spherical cockpit, which is the real engineering star and reportedly took the design team around four months to get right. From there you move out to the octagonal wing frames and the sloped panels, and this is where the repetition creeps in, since you are essentially building similar sections four times to cover all the solar arrays. It is a satisfyingly technical build without being frustrating, and most people put it together over roughly four to six hours. Take a break between wings and the pacing stays fun rather than a slog.

Parts-wise there is good stuff for fans. The wings lean on newly designed 2x4 studless slope elements to get that aggressive angled geometry, including a fresh Slope 45 2x4 inverted cutout mold used dozens of times, and the 2x4 roof tiles make only their second ever appearance after the big UCS Millennium Falcon. There are also 1x6 plates in the newer red-orange color hiding in the interior structure, which is a nice grab for parts collectors. At 1,931 pieces for 229.99 dollars the price per part sits around 12 cents, which is fair rather than a steal, and the value here is really in the specialized panels and the exclusive printed elements rather than raw brick count.

Fun facts

01Designer Henrik Andersen came full circle on this one, having worked on the original UCS TIE Interceptor set (7181) back around 2000.
02That original 2000 set is often credited as the first LEGO set to use NPU (Nice Part Usage), sticking shovel elements into the wing sections to add detail.
03The finished model stretches over 16 inches (40 cm) long and includes a Star Wars 25th anniversary brick on its display stand.
04The exclusive TIE pilot is the first LEGO TIE pilot ever to get printed arms, with asymmetric left and right prints including a wrist pad.