Star Wars Collection : Imperial TIE Fighter (2003)

Hasbro (Bye Bye Kenner)
"Scale" : Made for 3-3/4" figures.

This is the last of my "midget" standard TIE Fighter...
They made more improvements, that we will review here, but...
It still looks "ridiculous" (small solar arrays).
I had the same problem with the X-wing, the first one was a caricature...
As a kid, I was not interested by the models with strange proportions
OK today I've got them all... And in many variations... But the reason is that I'm insane... like many other crazy geek or collectors.



So, this one again is in MINT condition, The box is "modern", I mean that you see the toy through the plastic window. The reason is that you can watch the object on the shelves of the shop (yes, remember! Some years ago we were supposed to "GO" shopping, meet people, order things and be very patient sometimes... yes, yes the world was crazy... Today you "clic", after 10 minutes you complain, and you never move your ass anymore of course...)
The other reason, is that the collectors can store their precious little crap and be able to look at them without opening the box. NEVER OPEN THE BOX !

That's how I realized my illness, and my addiction, these things are only toys, not a piece of art...
"They" produce these "wonders", to be a collector Item immediately, the price is "collector" also of course... This is stupid... Where is the pleasure to search, gather information and share with others ???

I do not get it... My point of view is that a toy is just a toy... Specially the ones "Made in china".

I do not blame anyone, I was accumulating thousands of items during many years and I had fun with this hobby, but today it is over for me. I have other interests, and no more room anymore in my house, So I'm happy to exchange or discuss about the collections (Star Wars or others) but I do not "invest" anymore...

Let's come back on this other "midget TIE", the last one...
The frames of the cockpit glass are painted, the sticker of the dashboard is OK.
No red LED anymore or sound effect, so the front is nice.
Oh yes, you get a "free" pilot with the fighter...

YES ! That's an improvement ! It took them 25 years to achieve this...
A nice rear side.

The origin is obvious... No "Mexico" anymore...

The solar arrays are the structured ones, with black painting.
It is "cool" but nothing new..

So, on this one, a huge progress as been done, the rear side !
But what about the wings??? How many years will we have to wait???
In fact as you probably know it, they made it... But this will be for another topic.










We are getting closer, but it still looks completely stupid.

Star Wars Collection : Imperial TIE Fighter (1995)

Kenner
"Scale" : Made for 3-3/4" figures

This version of the TIE Fighter, even if it does keep the main defects of the previous models (solar array much too small), have also some improvements that was announcing the future models.











This one is MINT condition too, 10/10.
This fighter is in gray-green injected plastic.

This model has been simplified , no light and sound (mecanical) anymore.
The elevator has been removed.

No more button at the rear, but the "block" used as a "handle", that was containing the batteries, is still there.

One nice improvement is the cockpit glass which is painted in light gray, there is a stupid colorful sticker on the front of the dashboard

Another nice improvement is the solar arrays, bye bye stickers ! Now there is a nice structure painted black

To summarize :
- No more "middle age sound system" (rattle clacker) I'm not kidding open one of these old toys and you will see...
- No more sad stickers but a nice black structure for the wings.
- Some color on the frame of the cockpit glass.
- But sadly in 1995, the small wings are still there... This will change...

So globally many interesting improvements, but still... the "big" problem... The ridiculous small solar arrays...
I remember that even with these improvements, I did not buy any TIE fighter at that time...

Star Wars Collection : TIE Interceptor (1983)

Kenner
"Scale" : Made for 3-3/4" figures
The TIE Interceptor was the most elegant fighter of the empire.
For the body of the ship, they have used all the molds of the 1978 model, there is not structural changes.
The "cockpit glass" is still fully transparent, this will change on the next model.
The plastic color is "light gray".








This model is in perfect condition but with stickers on, The Box is quite OK even if I've seen better.

The global shape of this fighter is really nice, some better adjustments could have been done, but for the early eighties, it is no so bad.

I own two models of this interceptor in the same condition, maybe one with "cleaner" stickers

Star Wars Collection : TIE Fighter Battle-Damaged (1983)

Kenner

"Scale" : Made for 3-3/4" figures

What is the difference between a standard white TIE fighter and an Battle Damaged TIE?

In fact, there is no difference !

Except...

Stickers with additional damage stickers.

The plastic is blue (gray/blue).

The elevator is still there and the "light & sound system" remains the same...

This one is also in MINT condition, it has never been used.
All the stickers and the manual are in perfect condition.



This model is blue-gray

The "fake damages" stickers have been printed separately on transparent film, this would allow the kid, to position the damages where they want to.
It was also a way to "customize" your toy.



They used all the molds of the 1978 model, there is not structural changes.
The "cockpit glass" is still fully transparent, this will change on the next model

Star Wars Collection : Darth Vader TIE Fighter (1978)

Kenner
"Scale" : Made for 3-3/4" figures

What is the difference between a TIE and an "Advanced" TIE, such as the Darth Vader personal fighter ?
You can say easily, the wings shape and the solar arrays ! But not only... The standard TIE does not have Hyperdrive system, the advanced TIE has it behind the canopy. And this is the main problem on this toy, "they" have used the same command module mold, to reduce production cost. We will see later that "they" will create a better looking toy of the Advanced TIE in the nineties.




The overall shape of the toy is better then the standard TIE of 1978, but the big missing part, containing the hyperdrive, is not nice at all.
The white injected plastic has been replaced by a dark gray which suffers a little bit less than the white with time.

The solar arrays are still simulated by glossy stickers. And you can see that, with time, some bubbles can appear, and the surface can become irregular.
Nothing is missing on this one, but it is less good looking then what I expect.

At the rear you can find the sound and light effects button, it is on top of the battery case, same as the white TIE.

I own two models of this Darth Vader TIE, one loose and the other in box, but as you can see "not in mint condition", I would say 7/10.

Star Wars Collection : White Imperial TIE Fighter (1978)

Kenner
"Scale" : Made for 3-3/4" figures

As I mentionned it, I do not collect Star Wars toys anymore (Since 2008).

But I though that it could be interesting to share "the classic vintages" in several messages in addition to the Star Wars collection quick preview.

I decided to start with the TIE Imperial Fighter.

I own 15 TIE models. This one is MINT condition 10/10.


Most of the white plastic vintage toys suffer of "Yellowing".
This dirty yellowing comes from age, but mainly because of light, UV being the worst for white plastics.
If you want to collect toys and keep them in perfect condition, avoid aligning them on shelves, out of the box and directly expose to sun light, even a few minutes only every day will damage your toy.
I purchased this one early 2000, and I was really pleased when I opened the box discovering the excellent condition of the toy.



The box still contains the stickers, the manual and the small catalog.
This first Twin Ion Engines version, has a kind of elevator to access the cockpit.

The toy has a "light and sound" effect (mecanical), there was no electronic sound at that time... The battery contacts are in copper and get oxided very quickly (green)

Below, you can see another of my models, this is the standard condition (yellowed) of a model that has been used and too much exposed to UV light. These cheap, used, models can be found easily on ebay.
At that time, the solar array were figurated by stickers on the wings, we will see that later there will be huge improvement on this detail.

The global shape of this toy is not elegant or let's say "balanced", this is due to the fact that the wings were really too small, we will see with a "newer" (2007) version, that it has been improved a lot.