Slightly bigger Tie Fighter

After a 12 hour day at my desk, I am still procrastinating on 10179 which is starting to get in the way.  Today's new arrival was the 2021 Imperial Tie Fighter (75300) which I ordered at the start of Jan and which has only just made it from Lego HQ.  As it's a pretty much brand new set, I thought I'd build and review it.  

The set is medium sized at 432 pieces but interestingly only has 88 different parts in it.  I see this as the start of a new trend from Lego to somewhat simplify their models, which is - in my humble view - welcome.  I think it's been achieved without any compromises too, which is great.  As comparisons from last year, the Sith Tie Fighteer (75272) and General Grievous Starfighter (75286) both had similar numbers of pieces but more individual parts (115 and 125 respectively).  The Knights of Ren ship had slightly more pieces but 175 different parts! 

There are also a brand new part - a 6x6 plate with 5 pin holes on the rear side (73110).  And also an unusual 4x4 dish with an open stud (to be fair, I think the AT AT from last year had some but I've yet to get that).  

The minifigs are also all unique and pretty interesting.  The least interesting is the pilot, which is a fairly standard update on the old one.  More interesting is the NI-L8 protocol droid, which is the first time I believe I've seen one of these.  Finally, a dual-moulded stormtrooper with a new look head.  

The parts come in three bags, the first of which does the cockpit and the other two of which do a wing each (as the wings are absolutely identical, I built these together).  End to end it took me about 40 mins to build which wasn't all that long for 400 odd pieces.  However, it was pretty satisfying.  Some interesting build techniques popped up, especially the use of rounded 1x2 plates to allow various other parts to fit in.  The new 6x6 plate also allows the wings to fit in snugly.

In terms of playability, this isn't the top set ever - you basically get the spring-loaded blaster bolts that come on every set and the ability to open the cockpit, but what do you expect from something this size?  Summary - 8 out of 10.

As a comparison, I've pulled a couple of comparator sets off the shelf.  I've not yet built 75211 or 75101 so those weren't on offer.  However, I did find the 2012 9492 version and the 2005 7263.  

These show an interesting evolution with the move away from blocky slopes towards a SNOT design and use of tiles on the edges of the wings.  However, the 2012 version retained the use of the big 6x6 slope bricks to join the wings. What's interesting is that this new model and the much bigger 2012 version have almost exactly the same number of bricks!

I did a comparison of the mini Tie's here if you're interested.