A Must Have Collector's Item For Any Star Wars and Lego Fan
Written: Jan 02 '08
Product Rating:
Durability:
Pros: Exclusive Collector's Item, Very Detailed, Rewarding Building Experience
Cons: Required Stand Support Not Sturdy, Many Steps and Sections Are Repetitive, No Figurines Included
The Bottom Line: This is a must have for any Star Wars and Lego fan. Not only was the build itself very fun, but the resulting model is great for display.
svt_amateur's Full Review: Star Wars Lego Exclusive Set #10175 Vader's Tie Ad...
I have recently renewed my childhood passion of Lego building and for Christmas my wife bought me Darth Vader's Ultimate Tie Fighter Advanced. I'm not much of a Star Wars enthusiast as I am a Lego enthusiast but this model definitely has me appreciating how menacing the Tie Fighter Advanced looks has me wanting more of the Lego Start Wars Exclusive Sets.
Let me be the first to say that this set is not for most children. While rated for ages 14+ this set is more geared for adults who appreciate and still have an attraction to Legos and will either keep this set boxed up or build it and show as a model. This is not a set you want to buy if you are expecting to be able to play with it once it is completed.
At a current price of $99.00 and 1212 pieces (that's $0.08 a piece) this set is expensive, but one would expect it to be since it is an exclusive set and classified as "hard to find" by www.lego.com. It personally took me about 5-6 hours over a week (I like to spread out my Lego builds to enjoy them, especially when models like these only get to be built once) and I found the building experience to be very rewarding.
When opening the box, one will see it filled with about 15-20 clear bags of different Lego pieces. I'm guessing there is some special way Lego figures out how to do each bag for quality control but they aren't done so that you can open one for each set of steps. Instead before building this model one must open each bag and dump the contents onto a pretty big surface (in my case a dining room table with two leafs inserted). Some people (like my best friend and wife) would prefer to organize the pieces by color and or parts in order to make the build easier and faster but as I like to take my time with these models I instead enjoy searching for each piece.
After dumping all the pieces onto my table and then staring at amazement at how many 1212 pieces looks like on my table, I then pull out the instruction guide. As with all other Lego models I've done the instruction guide is very detailed and I've never had to wonder if I was putting the right piece in the right place. One thing I noticed about this instruction guide was at the back it had a listing of all the parts required for this build which is great for those people who like to organize and make sure they have every piece before starting on their build. As for me, I didn't use this part of the guide at all.
My favorite part of the build was the very first two set of steps where you first build the cockpit and then build the huge rear section of the ship. The cockpit took about 30-45 minutes to complete and the rear took at least an hour. It wouldn't take most people this long to do it but I am very meticulous when it comes to putting these models together and I like getting it right the first time I do it. The coolest part about the cockpit is that the huge front window is removable and the top of the cockpit is able to be open to view the inside and to place a figurine (if you have one since for some reason they aren't included with this set). The only things I can say that are cool about the rear section is that it is pretty massive (especially compared to the cockpit) and that the top middle section is decently detailed.
The next set of steps involves assembling the stand, which took about 15 - 30 minutes to complete. I very much love how the stand is made out of actual Legos, but I don't love how the stand seems to not be very sturdy (it tends to wobble very easily when the model is touched), especially since this model is pretty heavy once completed. The use of the stand is required though because the outer wings can not support the weight of the entire ship and will break if the ship was placed on a surface instead of the stand. I'd have to say the coolest thing about the stand is the sticker that is placed on the front which gives information on the class, size, speed, capacity, and weapons of the "real" Star Wars TIE Advanced. This definitely makes this Lego set appear to be an exclusive model instead of just a toy.
The next few sets of steps involve assembling the four sets of wings that mount next to the cockpit. Each of these wings took about 15 minutes to complete, and although they are detailed and look great when mounted to the ship, they are also very repetitive. The bottom wings are mirror images of each other, the same with the top wings. There are only a few minor differences between the top and bottom wings.
The final sets of steps involve assembling each of the three piece outer wings. When all three pieces are combined each wing is easily the biggest part of the model. The main middle section of each wing took the longest, with about 45 minutes required for each section. Again, just as in the previous steps, these two wing sections are mirror images of each other. These steps involve building the outer portion of the main wing and then constructing two detailed pieces that are mounted on the inside of the wing.
Once these two main middle wing sections are completed, the final 2 parts of each wing are to be completed. As before, each part of each wing are mirror images of each other. Each wing section took about 30 minutes to complete.
Once the model was complete there were a few left over pieces (I would say about 20 in total, but this is to be expected since I've had the same result with the previous Lego sets I have built). The model looks much bigger than I expected (especially the outer wings), is very detailed, and was a lot of fun to build. Although I believe a sturdier stand build should have been included and at least one figurine, I definitely feel that I got my money's worth. Now I just have to figure out how to convince my wife that those other $269 and $499 Star Wars Lego Exclusive Sets are worth it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99 Type of Toy: Model Kits
Age Range of Child: Other
This item is NEW, in the original box factory sealed. Construct Darth Vaders ultimate TIE fighter! Pieces: 1212 Rebels beware! The TIE Advanced x1 is ...More at eBay
This auction is for a STAR WARS "Vader's TIE Advanced" LEGO set #10175 This set consists of 1212 pieces. SOLD OUT on LEGO .com All toys are new and in...More at eBay
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