Mini Tie Fighter collection

I didn't have much time to build today so I reconstructed my two copies of the mini Tie Fighter polybag (8028).  I think both of these were picked up at car boots as 2012 was in my pre-dawn "darkish ages".  Apparently, this was a giveaway with the Sun newspaper so would have been pretty common.  

It's not the greatest Lego set ever but retains the blue decal design of the early Lego tie fighters and has a reasonable amount of detail for the very limited number of pieces (just 44). 

I thought, however, it would be fun to compare this to the full set of Lego tie fighters under 100 pieces.  I've limited myself to only "classic" hexagon wing Ties, excluding any of the bomber, advanced or interceptor variants.  I alo excluded the age 4+ Tie Fighter Attack set (75237) which does come in under 100 pieces but only because it is so simple; it went out on the grounds that it's not a mini set.  Here's what I think is the full collection:

On the back row we have (left to right):

  • First Order Tie Microfighter (75149).  A nice little set this, adapted to sit a minifig. Not my all-time favourite microfighter but one of the better ones
  • First Order Special Forces Tie Fighter (30276).  This one was a Daily Mail giveaway back in 2015 and my mother gave it to me.  I later picked up no less than 4 more copies in a job lot!  I like the use of the technic gears in the wing struts.
  • 8028 as above

In the kind of middle row is:

  • Tie Fighter Mini (3219).   An early miniature from 2002 this must be one of the smallest Lego Star Wars sets at only 12 pieces.  A sand blue tile and dish make it unusual in colouring

In the front row is:

  • "TruTie" Tie Fighter, a 2014 Toys R Us promotional giveaway in the US.  Clearly as I'm British it was unlikely that I got this direct... and this is indeed made up from parts.  Again, only 12 pieces so it wasn't hard!
  • First Order SF Tie Fighter (911953) from 2019.  I should have noted that I also made this one up today as it was an unopened magazine gift polybag that's been on the shelf for some time.  I actually really enjoy the magazine gifts as I rarely manage to get the instructions and when I do, I ignore them treating it as a puzzle on how to use all the pieces to make the set correctly.  I'm not so keen on the inverted tiles on the outside of the wings on this one. 
  • Imperial Tie Fighter (30381) from 2018.  From memory, this was also another Lego giveaway pack and I have mixed feelings about it.  I like the use of old-style support stands for the arms and the cockpit is unusually upside-down.  However, the overall model is too wide.

Overall, if I have a favourite amongst these, it's 30276.

Having said all of that, I built the UCS Tie Fighter again just before Christmas (pretty much the last thing I built before starting this blog) and this set, it has to be said, blows away all other Tie models.


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