Long-time Star Wars fan here. I’m old enough to have seen the original trilogy in the theater.
As a kid I was fascinated by the many characters, space ships, space stations, and planets that the movies introduced. Over the years we have collected a good number of the Star Wars LEGO sets, but by no means do we have them all. We do have a variety of sets from movies that came out long ago to streaming TV series that came out recently.
The TIE Bomber first appeared in Episode V, but this model is a tribute to Episode VI: Return of the Jedi which came out 40 years ago in 1983. With 625 pieces, set #75347 includes 3 minifigures, a droid, and an artillery shuttle with additional bombs / missiles.
According to the box, the included minifigs are Vice Admiral Sloane, Darth Vader and a TIE Bomber Pilot. My wife pointed out that the hair piece for Sloane was unique in its styling. Her uniform and blaster gun are pretty standard for Imperial uniforms. I did not feel like Darth Vader was necessary in this set, but he is always a good LEGO character to have. The TIE pilot’s helmet was not all the way down in the back, which looked different to me. I remember an older TIE fighter helmet that comes down more in the back. Not a big deal, it just looked off to me at first.
The pieces went together pretty quickly. There are 4 bags total, with the first two bags building the bomber’s cockpit and torpedo launching sections. There was not a lot of detail in the interiors of these, although I do like the pieces used as the pilot’s control panels. The cockpit feels a little cramped, but that is probably necessary in a smaller set such as this. I think my biggest complaint about this set would be that the windshield or front glass was not transparent. You cannot see the pilot inside unless you open the cockpit. I remember this is possible in other TIE Fighter ships. I do, however, like the way the cockpit opens upward on a hinge.
The other fuselage section features four special cylinders for holding the bombs that can be dropped. With the lack of gravity in space, I would assume the bombs would have to be propelled somehow as opposed to simply dropped down. The cylinders have enough friction to easily hold the torpedo pieces, but when pressed down they shoot out quickly.
The third bag finishes off the main section of the ship and then builds the middle sections of the both wings. When I see the instructions have a “2x” indicating to do a group of steps twice, I usually like to build both at the same time in an assembly line style. The wings were finished with 2 more “2x” step groupings. The wing structure was pretty simple and the details came together nicely. The use of hinge-style pieces worked well for the angled sections of the wings.
Star Wars fans will like having this TIE Bomber model to play with or to display along with other sets from the Star Wars universe. I look forward to adding it to my display of sets that contains great characters, sets and space ships of movies from 40 years ago and from recent TV series.
