The dark side of the brick

I've been trying to clear some shelves on one side of the cupboard of Lego because I need the space for my wedge plates, which are currently in a whole range of places.  Yesterday I took apart the Saturn V rocket ( 21309 ) which had been sat at the back of said shelf for some years (probably nearly 5 at a guess) as I think it's the set that has been made up for the longest.  In front of that was my collection of Slave I sets. By my reckoning, excluding the UCS edition, there are 4 "large" versions and 3 smaller ones.  The oldest is 7144 from way back in 2000.  Dating from the days of limited brick pallettes (both types cand colours), this one rocks a green and brown vibe.  It's actually a pretty similar size to the latest version ( 75312 ) which is now renamed "Boba Fett's Starship" presumably in an attempt to be politically correct and the version that came with Betrayal at Cloud City ( 75222 ).  And the old 2000 edition only has a tiny 166 bricks!...

Back in the day, Lego TIE fighters were blue.  I've never understood this design choice from Lego as I don't believe that they ever featured much blue in them in the films!  Still, it doesn't look too bad and they now form a distinct subgenre in the Lego Star Wars universe.  Anyway, I reckon there were a total of 8 unique sets, though some of these appeared multiple times in different sets.  Here's my list: 7150 : TIE flighter (with Y-wing) from way back in 1999.  This is actually a Darth Vader (or Advanced) TIE and did indeed come with Darth himself.  Very simple.  Later reappeared in 7152 and 7262. 7146 : TIE fighter from 2001.  This one came with a TIE pilot and a standard stormtrooper but usefully a stan to precariously balance it on 4479 : TIE bomber from 2003.  This one really harks back after 7150.    10131 : TIE fighter collection (2004).  This introduced a new version of the Darth Vader TIE and a slightly remodelled ve...