This was the first release of the First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter, which has now been re-tooled and/or repainted twice:  Once for the Walmart exclusive TFA “sandy” version, and then again for the TLJ version, with Force Link feature.

The sculpt of the vehicle is nice, and you’ll notice a few differences when compared to the OT era TIE fighter.  Most notably, the cockpit seats two, one pilot and one rear-facing gunner.  Of course, according to the official cross section diagrams, the crew sit back-to-back, while this Hasbro version seats the figures side-by-side.  It’s one of those scaling inaccuracies I feel we can deal with, unlike everything about the Rogue One U-Wing.  There’s also a small rotating cannon on the top right of the fuselage, some power cell whatnots where the wings attach to the body.

The ship features an opening cockpit hatch (the hinge is to the rear of the cockpit pod), the aforementioned rotating gun, dual launching missiles, and ejecting wings.

The figure is decent, as far as 5POA go.  Hard to mess up this particular figure.  What little paint applications on the uniform are necessary, were done well enough.  The helmet is removable, although this might not be that much of a bonus because the pilot’s face has zero personality and looks like a mannequin. 

Overall, it’s what you might expect, except for three major things that ruin this toy.  First, the materials used a a very soft plastic.  The wings were warped right out of the box, and I have little doubt they were not made for the long haul of a life on a display shelf.  This is really poor on Hasbro’s part.  Next, it’s a small-winged ship.  Unless this was a budget vehicle, the wings should definitely have been of the big variety.  Which leads into the third point: The $40 MSRP.  For a vehicle of this smallish size, and with a reduction in scale from previous TIE iterations, a $40 pricetag is too much to pay.  If you’re dying for a First Order TIE fighter, you’d have to settle for one of the 3 versions that currently exist with this mold.  All of them have inferior plastic, and all of them are too expensive. 

It looks good at first, but the small and bendy wings, along with a hefty pricepoint, make this a tough sell.