Not long ago, we featured Joel Short‘s screen-accurate LEGO X-wing. As great a replica as it was, it had nobody to chase it around. Enter Joel’s latest creation (well, actually an update of an old creation, but it’s a great update): the legendary TIE fighter. I don’t know if you can hear a picture, but I look at it and hear a TIE’s distinctive roar.
Can’t shake the fighters on your tail? Let’s get a little closer.
A spacecraft with black wings and a bubble cockpit? Easy – that can only be a TIE fighter. But hang on, these were also defining features of LEGO’s Blacktron II theme… So what is it? Well, it’s both! Gerard Joosten AKA Elephant-Knight has a bit of a knack for builds within the Blacktron II aesthetic, and he’s turned to the Star Wars universe for his latest creation. The TIE Defender is one of the more outlandish TIE variants, and as a result it fits very nicely into the design language of my personal favourite LEGO space villains. Does this mean Darth Vader gets a neon-green lightsaber…?
I still recall getting my first LEGO Star Wars sets in 1999, and I think back to how simple Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced was in 7150 TIE Fighter & Y-wing with just 409 pieces between the two ships. So I’m in awe when I see incredible versions like this TIE-D by Sy Lyphics, which packs a whopping 1,573 pieces into a minifigure-scale recreation of one of the more awesome TIE variants. The sculpting on the bubble fuselage is particularly adept, with those triangular grey roadsigns looking purpose-made for the job.
This one isn’t just a looker on the outside, though. Sy has created a fully functional cockpit, an incredible achievement considering the difficulty of creating a brick-built sphere that’s hollow.
One of the great things about the podracers in Star Wars is that it’s quite easy to put a creative spin on it. Two massive engines, link it to a cockpit with some flimsy cables, and voila! Having said that, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an Imperial podracer like Rubblemaker‘s here. Using the TIE fighter’s signature ball cockpit as the pod is really clever (and probably safer than the open cockpits some other podracers have). The engines also take some design cues from the Empire’s main starfighter. Like the cockpit it just seems like such a natural design choice, but I’m not sure I would have thought of it!
There are a lot of great LEGO TIE fighters out there. So many, in fact, that Matt (Classic Brix) decided to do something a bit different and build one at a slightly reduced scale. And boy, does it pay off! It’s a super model with some of the parts choices giving it a very distinct style. The standout is the use of a gear wheel to give the window its signature octagonal frame. But take a closer look! This gear actually has studs with bars slotted into it, to allow the ball shape of the cockpit to be recreated. It’s a frankly genius solution!
Man, I love good LEGO builds in an alternate scale! Here we see a trio of TIE Fighters built by Tim Goddard. They’re not quite microscale, but probably what we’d call closer to Midi-scale. Tim calls it Trophy Scale which would be great to receive such a trophy. The Darth Vader TIE Advanced X1 and its regular TIE escorts are handsome on their stands and showcase just about as much detail as their bigger UCS counterparts.
Tim tells us he has been thinking about building the entire Death Star trench run in this scale, which would still be massive and jaw-droppingly impressive if he pulls it off. In the meantime, just tie yourselves over with a couple of the good guy ships, an X-Wing and A-Wing. Now don’t get cocky! Actually, we prefer when you do get cocky. It usually makes for good LEGO creations and amusing subject matter to write about.
TIE Fighters are one of the most iconic spaceships in pop culture today, and one of the most fun to see built with LEGO. Faku Saku returns to the classic ship with this redesign of an earlier TIE Fighter model he did a few years back. Redesigned and built from the ground up, the wings on this fighter stand out with some exquisite details. Right from the gate, we can see Faku kept the grille tiles for the solar panel detailing on the outside of the wings. Tiles and wedges nicely fill in the inside of the wings. The points where the wings attach to the ship’s body feature greater screen accuracy than the original model. And the outside of the wings? They have a cleaner and stronger appearance than most builds I’ve seen for a Tie Fighter!
Yes, you read that right. And your eyes are not deceiving you. LEGO builder Ghalad managed to combine an obscure nuclear seaplane from the Soviet Union with a classic Star Wars TIE fighter. The resulting digital build is something you could have expected to appear in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars films.
It’s unlikely you’ve heard of the Lun-class Ekranoplan, a Soviet-era seaplane capable of launching nuclear warheads through tubes based on top of the plane. It was developed before the age of ballistic submarines, filling the gap between land-based nuclear bombers and sea-based launch platforms.
From Wikipedia
While we realize May the Fourth was yesterday it’s hard to contain so much Star Wars awesomeness in one day. Take, for example, this stunning LEGO Royal Guard TIE Interceptor by Jarek Książczyk. The complex shaping, the build techniques, even the breathtaking photography are all several notches above standard. The Emperor would approve.
As if the striking red Royal Guard Interceptor wasn’t enough, here is a shot of some other TIE Fighters he’s been working on and perfecting lately. Here we have an updated TIE Fighter, a color variant for Iden Versio (I had to look that one up), the aforementioned Royal Guard Fighter, and a new TIE Interceptor.
He is a Star Wars spaceship aficionado as evidenced by this Razor Crest, and this Y-Wing. If you’re still craving all things Star Wars check out our archive of news and other fabulous creations from a galaxy far far away.
Moff Gideon does not simply fly a boring TIE Fighter. Rather, he is a man of class and mysterious wealth and is special enough to have his own personal spacecraft. When he arrives at the scene flanked by his stormtrooper army, there is no escape for Rebel scum… Michał Kozłowski built the TIE variant seen in The Mandalorian, known as the Outland TIE Fighter flown by Moff Gideon.
While not completely bespoke to the cold and calculating Moff, this craft has a unique folding wings feature. As Michał demonstrates in his YouTube video, the wings fold easily but can also stay upright when in flight mode without wobble. He achieves this by having lightsaber blades inside several Technic pins to create the necessary friction to be stable.
Check out more TIE Fighter builds we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick!
With Ultimate Collector Series and recent 4+ sets for younger builders aside, LEGO Star Wars starfighters like X-wings and TIE fighters have maintained a consistent trajectory of higher and higher part counts (with correspondingly greater levels of detail) over the past 20 years. The latest LEGO Star Wars sets move the part count in the opposite direction, with 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter including 474 pieces with four minifigs (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99) and 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter including 432 plus three figures (US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99). We’ll compare these January 2021 starfighters with the 2018 LEGO X-wing and 2018 TIE Fighter.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with early copies of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
It’s that wonderful time of year, when the shriek of TIE Fighters can be heard in the winter sky, turbolasers pound Christmas-green plasma into nearby starships, and Imperial forces swarm like snowflakes across enemy ground positions. Armored walkers inch closer to the rebel base, with each walker hoping to go home and cozy up by the fire. LEGO builder SeanBr1cks shows one particular AT-AT getting some of that holiday cheer after a long day of crushing insurrections.
There are a lot of fun easter eggs in this build: the Millennium Falcon wrapped as a Christmas gift, the X-wing and TIE fighter dogfight around the tree, and the mounted Rebel snowspeeder over the mantle. Everything is full of the holiday spirit! Sean’s clever use of bricks doesn’t just show off his building skills. They tell a story, one that we’re all familiar with yet laced with Star Wars fun.
