Let’s take a look at the four TIE Fighters released by Kenner during their original STAR WARS run:
TIE FIGHTER (1978)
The good old original! Featured a light-up laser you could activate at the touch of a button, and pop-off wings to make the ship appear to be blown up during play time. A TIE Fighter pilot figure wouldn’t be made until 1982, way overdue, so for the time being, Stormtrooper figures served as pilots.
DARTH VADER TIE FIGHTER (1979)
Have a box for this one, so let’s check it out.
And moving on to the real thing:
Here’s where Vader sits, and the “controls” sticker is different from the basic TIE Fighter.
When sitting a vintage Vader figure in this, I recommend removing the fragile vinyl cape first.
The glowing laser light and sound effects still work on this one!
Following Darth Vader TIE Fighter, it would be four years before Kenner made another TIE. I’m not sure why they didn’t put out a TIE Bomber, as seen in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, during that time. (We would FINALLY get a TIE Bomber around 2000 or so.)
BATTLE-DAMAGED TIE FIGHTER (1983)
A few years back, I tracked this gem down for my bro. He had it when we were kids, but it had since been lost or broken.
Before giving it to him, I had to take some pictures, so here we go!
I always love the vintage Star Wars vehicle boxes! It seems strange, though, that Darth Vader is pictured, and not the Tie Fighter Pilot figure, which came out just the previous year.
And now, let’s take a look at the toy itself!
Very nice!
This one doesn’t have the “battle-damaged” stickers applied to it, though you can see what these stickers look like on the box pictures.
And as far as I can tell, it’s identical to the original 1978 TIE Fighter, including the pop-off wings, except it’s blue instead of white, and of course comes with the battle-damaged stickers.
It would have been nice if these battle-damaged stickers had been removeable. That way you could go back and forth between having the ship damaged or in good condition as you played your adventures. But this wasn’t the case. Once those stickers were on, they were on!
TIE INTERCEPTOR (1983)
Commonly thought to have been released in 1984, however I got it for Christmas in ’83, so…
But, wow, check out the amazing sculpt on this beauty!
Magnificent!
Like the other TIEs, it also features exploding wings, and as you can see, it has the same “controls” sticker as the Darth Vader TIE.
Kenner did an amazing job on these!
Thanks for reading!
