I Love The New Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced So Much That It’s A Problem

I opened my Vintage Collection Darth Vader's TIE Advanced last weekend, and the glow still hasn't worn off. This is instantly one of my favorite pieces in my collection, and caps off an utterly amazing 2025 for this Vintage Collection fan. I have the ship placed on a shelf that I can easily view from my desk at work, so I can stare over at it whenever I want, and it instantly gives me a lift. Truth be told, this shelf placement wasn't done with my sightline in consideration. That was just a happy coincidence. I have a TIE Fighter display in a different part of my collection room. When I first went to place the new TIE Advanced with the large wing TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, and TIE Bomber I realized it wasn't going to work. It's almost like mixing in a modern Vintage Collection figure with a trio of POTF2 figures. That's overstating it, but you get my point.

I now seriously want all of the other TIE's to be updated. I jokingly said in the front page lead in that this article would be nomadscout's worst nightmare as he is the president of the "new before redo" fan club (that club is populated entirely by jerks, FYI). But in his review of Vader's TIE Advanced HERE, he wrote:

I may have to make an exception to my collecting interests and use this opportunity to stump for a new TVC TIE Fighter, sourced to ANH, without the spring loaded wings that have plagued the line since the Kenner days, and color-matched to this TIE Advanced.

I feel like that was the moment when Darth Vader is vacillating between the Light and Dark sides before throwing Papa Palps overboard. Only now, at the end, does he realize that our displays must look consistent. It's not about bringing every single figure up to the latest articulation standard because that is an endless and unachievable task. It's about just having our displays look like they form a congruous collection. That's a challenge when like things have tooling that is separated by decades, as it the case with our TIE Fighters.

Of the three, I think the TIE Interceptor is in the most dire need of upgrade objectively. It was last tweaked in 2013, but still uses the spring loaded wings that date all the way back to the 1970's. The problem is that the angular shape of the wings put all the stress on the spring loaded mechanism, and they tend to droop over time. Of course the standard TIE is also cursed with the spring loaded wings, so, again objectively, if the TIE's were to be updated, it would be the next highest priority. Plus as the truest "army builder" among the TIE's, some would be inclined to buy multiples.

Subjectively, the one that bothers me the most is the TIE Bomber. As someone who grew up with the Kenner line, I've repeatedly said that the things I love most in the Vintage Collection are not the Original 96'ers (though I do love them) or other Kenner counterparts. The things I love the most in the Vintage Collection are things I thought should have been in the Kenner line as a kid. That's why I get such a thrill from VC98 - Grand Moff Tarkin and VC57 - Dr. Evazan. I couldn't figure out why we didn't have those back in 1978. Similarly, as a kid, I really wanted a TIE Bomber. I was mesmerized by them the second I saw them in The Empire Strikes Back.

I was thrilled when the TIE Bomber finally came to fruition in the POTJ line in 2002. But the problem is that was when the line was still "toys", and that release (and its re-release in TAC) more closely resembles the vintage Kenner vehicles than the current studio models we get in the Vintage Collection. It's woefully undersized. The cockpit is basically a plastic coffin for the pilot. In universe, the TIE Bomber is larger than the TIE Advanced, but the POTJ Bomber is maybe 60% the size of the new Vader's TIE. That jumps up and down on my OCD nerves like a spastic kid in the ball pit at Chipmunk Charlie's. Would there be enough support for a $150-ish TIE Bomber? Probably not, but I ask you just to envision a new TIE Bomber in Empire packaging with images of it flying over the space slug asteroid. Oh God, I want it more than pizza.

I know this probably won't be a popular take, but I say let Chris Reiff cook and go to town on all the TIE's. Oh, and we desperately need a new TIE Fighter Pilot too.

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