Star Wars: The Black Series 6" First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter

Packaging for the TIE Fighter

The TIE itself, well, that’s a lot to take in. Like the pilot, the new TIE fighter is a much different version of the classic craft, modifying much of the original design in order to become a familiar-yet-different ship. Most of the differences are not really noticeable on first inspection, and in fact as I carried out the simple assembly steps, I found myself surprised again and again at the changes, none of which I’d noticed in any of the images of the new TIE, or in the toys I’d seen at the stores. I skipped buying a 3.75” TIE on Force Friday because I thought it was just an old one painted black, and with those big gear things on the insides of the wings. Boy was I missing a lot.

                This TIE holds two figures, which by itself is pretty incredible. The cockpit ball (lol) is almost the size of a basketball and is incredibly detailed inside. Each of the seats has a full control array, with painted buttons on the dash and a bunch of red and yellow streaks on the inside ceiling. It really reminds of the toys I had as a kid, with the molded buttons and gauges on their dashes. The claws that secure the pilots are actually rather tight, making it a challenge to get a figure seated properly. I had a real tough time getting the pilot in, but once he is inside, the cockpit is pretty spacious. Two figures will fit in there and look good; the only problem is getting them in there.

                The rear view is where things are most different.  The second figure faces the rear of the craft, looking out through a wide window. The engines are located on both sides of the rear-facing window, totally unlike the classic TIE design where the engine was the back of the ship. Both of the windows are pretty smoky, so it is a little hard to see clearly all the way through the ship. The smokiness of the plastic is kind of a bummer, because it makes it difficult to get a clear look through the ship, so you can’t really see the pilots in action too well. Maybe it’s a minor gripe, but with all the details and control surfaces inside the cockpit it seems a bit of a waste. One thing that’s always so cool about vehicles of this size is that you can finally take a good, up close look at the inside of your favorite fictional craft. Smaller iterations of the TIE have usually had some level of interior detail, but now you really get to take a look at it. But with the foggy windows, all you really see are the general shapes of the pilots inside. Maybe it’s a minor complaint, but I would have liked it better had it been possible to take a clearer view of the insides from the outsides. The entrance hatch is nice and wide so you can appreciate the interior, though. Speaking of the inside, I feel I should mention that the pilots are secured in their seats by the C clip, claw style ‘belt,’ where you have to wiggle the figures’ waist into the claw part that is attached to the back of the chair. The clip is INCREDIBLY tight, and while the hatch is pretty big, it’s just small enough to make it difficult to fit a hand inside enough to easily seat a figure. I’d recommend being extra careful seating your pilots, as the tension is just concerning enough that it makes me worry I’m going to snap something. If the seats were removable, so you could take the bench out, seat the figures and then replace the bench, that would be better.

The second, rear-facing pilot is a gunner, and controls the swivel mounted twin lasers that hang under the ball. These lasers turn 360 degrees, and in theory tilt up and down as well, although on the toy they do not. This would offer a great range for the guns, but you sort of hope they’re equipped with the same type mechanism that World War I biplanes had. Those planes had a kill switch mounted in the engine so that when the propeller spun in front of the gun barrels, the guns would automatically stop firing so that a pilot didn’t blow his own propeller off. The lasers beneath the TIE can basically cover the 90 degrees in front and the 90 degrees behind the fighter, but could be a serious issue as concerns the two gigantic wing panels on the sides of the craft. Although, given the legendary quality of Imperial marksmanship, maybe there’s no need to worry that the TIE gunner would actually hit something in field of vision anyway.

So, the more obvious design changes. How about those huge cogs inside the wing panels? Only the Special Forces TIEs have these, and I’m not quite sure what their function is. They look like beefier connections for the wings, so I guess it would make sense to think of them as armor for a delicate and easily targeted part of the vessel. They are kid of reminiscent of some of the body parts on the TIE Bomber, where the ship has clearly been beefed up to make it more stable and durable. Screen shots of the standard First Order TIE show that they don’t have these pieces, so it makes some sense that this one would be a supped-up ‘special forces’ version. The forward facing lasers are extended out from the body and are much larger than the standard TIE lasers, making for a more menacing look. There is also a piece sticking up from the right side of the center ball, and it looks like it could be either a sensor array or another weapon. The part does not move, and all the images of the ship that I’ve seen just have it standing straight up, like a sensor array or other piece of equipment. But, it does look like it would make a convincing weapon, and the piece is held together by a screw in the middle. I guess loosening this screw would allow the part to fold over, thus making more of a laser turret type thing. I haven’t tried this, so it’s all speculation on my end.

I like the Black Series TIE a whole lot. It is absolutely huge, like top of the bookshelf huge, and it is pretty imposing looking. It looks good in black, and the red swath on the right side looks good, but the paint seems a little thin. It would have looked better if the red had been applied thicker, and towards the rear end of mine at least, it gets a little thin looking. Maybe this is something that differs on individual fighters, maybe it’s the way the fighters are supposed to look.

Something I’m really glad about is that the fighter didn’t get all junked up with ‘action features’. Quite often, and you know exactly what I mean, new or ‘updated’ releases of something like the TIE, which by itself hasn’t actually changed at all in over 30 years, will incorporate a firing missile or flip out cannons or what have you, and while those things are undoubtedly fun for kids . . . like myself . . . it is sometimes winds up being an addition by detraction scenario. A larger toy or a new production run of a toy allows for changes to the design, a gussying up of a tacit old design with some new bell and/or whistle, more fun for the kids while giving we collectors a twinge in the back of our minds that we just might need this new TIE fighter, because it now does something ever so slightly different than before. It’s the Malibu Stacy New Hat Effect.

Such ‘action features’ usually don’t make it into collector-focused lines: how many Masterpiece Transformers have firing missiles? And while with a figure, regardless of size, a missile launcher or something can easily be left in a box somewhere, vehicles don’t have the luxury of ditching accessories, so we get stuck with them. A vehicle this large is practically begging for some designer to plan firing weapons or lights or something, but thankfully, there is nothing of the sort.

And really, I don’t think that anything would have added to the toy. It doesn’t really do anything, but it’s a TIE fighter: what is it supposed to do? It’s a two-hand toy, and flying it around your apartment basically means holding it like you would hold a baby with diaper-related issues: out in front of you, underneath the arms.

This is not a piece for everyone, by any means. It is really big, and real expensive. If you have a place to put it (I did…..barely) and feel the purchase is justified (I did…..and my wife was cool with it, which is a big plus), and are in to the Black Series enough, it is totally worth the purchase.