LEGOStar Wars TIE Fighter 75095 Star Wars Toy

I am about 2/3 of the way through this kit, as I type this; please attribute any typos to my fingers itching to dive back into this beautifully designed model.First: It is LARGE. I had not, when reading the blurb on the website and in a few reviews, realized that the dimensions as stated on-screen would create as much of a presence when in their full LEGO'd glory. The panels, by way of example, are about the size of our dinner plates, and the central cockpit/propulsion structure is large and heavy enough to keep two rambunctious kittens from their usual "Let's help out human with whatever he's doing by swatting some of those parts across the room."Second: the designer did a truly beautiful job of re-creating the shape and "flow" of the movie version (I was about to write "real thing" for a second there) with clever and liberal use of angled bricks that work as well aesthetically as they do structurally -- the aforementioned central assembly is surprisingly solidly built, when built.Because of the structure of the fictional design of the ship, much of the construction is redundant: you'll use about 4-6 of the parts bags for the panels alone. One technique I've used, when I'm impatient to see the final result, is building matching parts simultaneously...it can reduce the potential for tedium. This said -- it in no way detracts from the joy of building this thing; that's simply the way the "original" was designed.Lastly -- when you are done, the size and attention to detail will result in an impressive and impossible-to-miss display...having spend many hours of my childhood re-creating _Star Wars_ battles with the action figures and playsets that were so popular in the 70's (and 80's), building this was as much about happy nostalgia as it was about doing what I hadn't been able to do when I was 10 or 12 -- see something cool in a catalog and just ordering it with my own hard-earned adult dollars :).

Well, bought two of these based on reviews here and online. The photos really look incredible. So....I've built one, and the other one I'm saving. Impressions?? This thing is awesome! Very well designed kit. Fun to assemble. So you have to make two wings, big deal, sort of tired seeing reviews that complain about "having to build the same thing twice!" The result is well worth the effort. I didn't even apply the stickers. I may choose to apply them later, but in my opinion, they aren't necessary. The finished model is not only impressive but also quite imposing. It really looks much more impressive and detailed in real life than what photos depict. I highly recommend this set for any Star Wars fan, especially if you happen to have an X wing to display with it! Downsides? You must find enough space to be able to display this beauty ( it is rather large) , and, you may just find yourself becoming hooked on Lego Star Wars UCS sets....(had to buy a Slave 1 too!) I think it's referred to a " coming out of the dark ages". Soooooo.....have fun, if you order this, I sincerely doubt you will be dissapointed.

This review is directed towards LEGO. The package came today and was excited to start putting it together. I opened the box and found 5 total bags and the instruction book. Thought to myself it seemed odd that a set w 1700 pieces only had 5 bags when the Snowspeeder set had 13. When I pulled the instruction book out, I saw it was the U-wing instruction book with all 5 of its parts bags.Not Amazon's fault LEGO dropped the ball on this one.I did contact Amazon immediately and they are sending me a replacement. Can't wait to see what mystery set LEGO shoved in the UCS Tie Fighter box this time.(Update changed 1 star to 5 stars) I got the right contents this time and got it all put together. The photos don't do it justice. Looks so much better in person. Impressive size and very sturdy. I like how you can turn it effortlessly on its stand. If you have big hands, you might need tweezers to apply certain stickers. I had to use some on the very last part because I couldn't get my hands in there and didn't want to risk taking it apart with parts flying everywhere. Overall a solid build.

Just finishing up the base now.I knew from the video I saw on Lego.com when they talked about this kit, that the panels would be on tight, and even how they were done. But having it in hand and building it and snapping the parts into place as well as the wedge that holds them in place, was quite a unique experience, since with the hundreds of Mega Blok and Lego kits we've built, I've not had anything with that level of security. These things will break before they come loose.It's an odd build, since for some reason they did paired bags (i.e. 5 and 9, 6 and 10, etc) to build the same thing in parallel, while doing the wings. Each side done concurrently. Don't know why they had to do the bags like that, but it's at least another unique facet of the build.The detail is nice, both inside and outside. But the seat inside has no dots on it to hold the minifig, so I have him standing in front of it, only way to keep him from rattling around inside there.Stand is simple but effective.If you're a star wars fan, this is a fun build that doesn't have a ton of repetition like many larger kits do, and it's an impressive display when finished. Well worth the price.