SWTOTW, Week 45, 2019 Imperial Tie Fighter Pilot
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StarWarsFan
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StarWarsFan said:
Nice army!
The Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot. As a kid, I longed for this figure! When Star Wars came out and we got the first 12 figures, brilliant though those were, a stormtrooper had to substitute as the pilot in my white TIE Fighter in the absence of the genuine article. And the next 8 figures might have helped fill out your Cantina and Land of the Jawas playsets, but they didn't do a thing to rectify the TIE situation either!
But then Empire came out and we got some wonderful new figures... and still we got no TIE Fighter Pilot! The next wave of figures brought no relief either, nor the one after that! In fact Kenner made us wait until virtually the end of the ESB line before my white TIE Fighter finally got the captain it deserved, albeit mystifyingly on a backing card which didn't even show the character!
Was it worth the wait? Well the figure certainly looks the part, even if it is a bit (OK, a lot) too broad and stocky, and suffers from the same inability to turn its head as the stormtrooper. It also appears to have been sculpted by someone who liked buns of steel! At any rate, they certainly sculpted him with a most fulsome and rounded pair of cheeks, complete with figure-hugging trousers that border on giving him anal camel toe! In fact, baby's got so much back it actually impedes the movement of his legs, meaning some variants have a slight forwards lean because they can't stand up completely straight!
Kim Kardashian tributes aside however, this is a good figure, even if it does often suffer from that common Kenner complaint of not always holding its weapon very well. It's also a figure with precious few sculpting differences across its various variants. The raised bar China has the most obvious differences, but even they are on the back of the calves and boots where you'd hardly notice them! There is of course the infamous cockup 'COO on the front of his thighs' variant where, for reasons I still can't fathom, the ghostly imprint of the COO on the back of his legs can be faintly seen on the front of them!
However, even though the sculpts don't really vary all that much aside from a bit of stance width, and slight shade differences in the grey and orange paint used (with a red also existing, which I don't have), there are plenty of differences to be found in the Imperial emblems stamped onto his helmet. The most bizarre has to be the white AT-AT Driver emblems PBP inexplicably gave him in Spain, but even when the emblems were correct, their size and shape can vary markedly.
Anyway, here are my 6... Sorry about the dirt on some of them! The flash makes it look a lot worse... honest! :lol:
But then Empire came out and we got some wonderful new figures... and still we got no TIE Fighter Pilot! The next wave of figures brought no relief either, nor the one after that! In fact Kenner made us wait until virtually the end of the ESB line before my white TIE Fighter finally got the captain it deserved, albeit mystifyingly on a backing card which didn't even show the character!
Was it worth the wait? Well the figure certainly looks the part, even if it is a bit (OK, a lot) too broad and stocky, and suffers from the same inability to turn its head as the stormtrooper. It also appears to have been sculpted by someone who liked buns of steel! At any rate, they certainly sculpted him with a most fulsome and rounded pair of cheeks, complete with figure-hugging trousers that border on giving him anal camel toe! In fact, baby's got so much back it actually impedes the movement of his legs, meaning some variants have a slight forwards lean because they can't stand up completely straight!
Kim Kardashian tributes aside however, this is a good figure, even if it does often suffer from that common Kenner complaint of not always holding its weapon very well. It's also a figure with precious few sculpting differences across its various variants. The raised bar China has the most obvious differences, but even they are on the back of the calves and boots where you'd hardly notice them! There is of course the infamous cockup 'COO on the front of his thighs' variant where, for reasons I still can't fathom, the ghostly imprint of the COO on the back of his legs can be faintly seen on the front of them!
However, even though the sculpts don't really vary all that much aside from a bit of stance width, and slight shade differences in the grey and orange paint used (with a red also existing, which I don't have), there are plenty of differences to be found in the Imperial emblems stamped onto his helmet. The most bizarre has to be the white AT-AT Driver emblems PBP inexplicably gave him in Spain, but even when the emblems were correct, their size and shape can vary markedly.
Anyway, here are my 6... Sorry about the dirt on some of them! The flash makes it look a lot worse... honest! :lol:
Snaketibe said:The Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot. As a kid, I longed for this figure! When Star Wars came out and we got the first 12 figures, brilliant though those were, a stormtrooper had to substitute as the pilot in my white TIE Fighter in the absence of the genuine article. And the next 8 figures might have helped fill out your Cantina and Land of the Jawas playsets, but they didn't do a thing to rectify the TIE situation either!
But then Empire came out and we got some wonderful new figures... and still we got no TIE Fighter Pilot! The next wave of figures brought no relief either, nor the one after that! In fact Kenner made us wait until virtually the end of the ESB line before my white TIE Fighter finally got the captain it deserved, albeit mystifyingly on a backing card which didn't even show the character!
Was it worth the wait? Well the figure certainly looks the part, even if it is a bit (OK, a lot) too broad and stocky, and suffers from the same inability to turn its head as the stormtrooper. It also appears to have been sculpted by someone who liked buns of steel! At any rate, they certainly sculpted him with a most fulsome and rounded pair of cheeks, complete with figure-hugging trousers that border on giving him anal camel toe! In fact, baby's got so much back it actually impedes the movement of his legs, meaning some variants have a slight forwards lean because they can't stand up completely straight!
Kim Kardashian tributes aside however, this is a good figure, even if it does often suffer from that common Kenner complaint of not always holding its weapon very well. It's also a figure with precious few sculpting differences across its various variants. The raised bar China has the most obvious differences, but even they are on the back of the calves and boots where you'd hardly notice them! There is of course the infamous cockup 'COO on the front of his thighs' variant where, for reasons I still can't fathom, the ghostly imprint of the COO on the back of his legs can be faintly seen on the front of them!
However, even though the sculpts don't really vary all that much aside from a bit of stance width, and slight shade differences in the grey and orange paint used (with a red also existing, which I don't have), there are plenty of differences to be found in the Imperial emblems stamped onto his helmet. The most bizarre has to be the white AT-AT Driver emblems PBP inexplicably gave him in Spain, but even when the emblems were correct, their size and shape can vary markedly.
Anyway, here are my 6... Sorry about the dirt on some of them! The flash makes it look a lot worse... honest! :lol:
Imperial Glute Pilot - 01.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 02.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 03.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 04.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 05.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 06.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 07.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 08.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 09.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 10.jpg
Thanks mate for sharing all this great figures and all the good info about the figures. Your collection looks fantastic
I agree that the legs could be better, most of the tie fighter pilots does not stand well and the hand could also be better for the blaster. I was not born in 1977 when the first figures came out, but if I had been a kid in 1977 or 78 then I would have thought it would be strange there is no pilot for the tie fighter. Any idea why kenner first made him in 82 ? :? one of my first star wars figures was the tie fighter pilot, I remember opening the moc in the 80s
Pomse2001 said:Snaketibe said:The Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot. As a kid, I longed for this figure! When Star Wars came out and we got the first 12 figures, brilliant though those were, a stormtrooper had to substitute as the pilot in my white TIE Fighter in the absence of the genuine article. And the next 8 figures might have helped fill out your Cantina and Land of the Jawas playsets, but they didn't do a thing to rectify the TIE situation either!
But then Empire came out and we got some wonderful new figures... and still we got no TIE Fighter Pilot! The next wave of figures brought no relief either, nor the one after that! In fact Kenner made us wait until virtually the end of the ESB line before my white TIE Fighter finally got the captain it deserved, albeit mystifyingly on a backing card which didn't even show the character!
Was it worth the wait? Well the figure certainly looks the part, even if it is a bit (OK, a lot) too broad and stocky, and suffers from the same inability to turn its head as the stormtrooper. It also appears to have been sculpted by someone who liked buns of steel! At any rate, they certainly sculpted him with a most fulsome and rounded pair of cheeks, complete with figure-hugging trousers that border on giving him anal camel toe! In fact, baby's got so much back it actually impedes the movement of his legs, meaning some variants have a slight forwards lean because they can't stand up completely straight!
Kim Kardashian tributes aside however, this is a good figure, even if it does often suffer from that common Kenner complaint of not always holding its weapon very well. It's also a figure with precious few sculpting differences across its various variants. The raised bar China has the most obvious differences, but even they are on the back of the calves and boots where you'd hardly notice them! There is of course the infamous cockup 'COO on the front of his thighs' variant where, for reasons I still can't fathom, the ghostly imprint of the COO on the back of his legs can be faintly seen on the front of them!
However, even though the sculpts don't really vary all that much aside from a bit of stance width, and slight shade differences in the grey and orange paint used (with a red also existing, which I don't have), there are plenty of differences to be found in the Imperial emblems stamped onto his helmet. The most bizarre has to be the white AT-AT Driver emblems PBP inexplicably gave him in Spain, but even when the emblems were correct, their size and shape can vary markedly.
Anyway, here are my 6... Sorry about the dirt on some of them! The flash makes it look a lot worse... honest! :lol:
Thanks mate for sharing all this great figures and all the good info about the figures. Your collection looks fantastic
I agree that the legs could be better, most of the tie fighter pilots does not stand well and the hand could also be better for the blaster. I was not born in 1977 when the first figures came out, but if I had been a kid in 1977 or 78 then I would have thought it would be strange there is no pilot for the tie fighter. Any idea why kenner first made him in 82 ? :? one of my first star wars figures was the tie fighter pilot, I remember opening the moc in the 80s
Thanks, Lars
No, I don't know why it took Kenner so long to produce this figure, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was because he's technically a 'Star Wars' character rather than an 'The Empire Strikes Back' one. He appears on screen in the first film, but although we see a lot of (now blue) TIE Fighters in Empire, we never actually see a TIE Fighter Pilot in the film. Therefore, perhaps Kenner viewed him as an older character and hence less desirable to kids? If so, they needn't have worried as I, like countless other kids around the globe, snapped him up the second I saw him on the shelves for the first time in Tesco 'Home and Wear' in Ware, Hertfordshire in 1982 :-D
StarWarsFan
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Snaketibe said:StarWarsFan said:
Nice army!
Cheers mate, tbh that's an old photo has grown a lot since then.
StarWarsFan
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Snaketibe said:The Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot. As a kid, I longed for this figure! When Star Wars came out and we got the first 12 figures, brilliant though those were, a stormtrooper had to substitute as the pilot in my white TIE Fighter in the absence of the genuine article. And the next 8 figures might have helped fill out your Cantina and Land of the Jawas playsets, but they didn't do a thing to rectify the TIE situation either!
But then Empire came out and we got some wonderful new figures... and still we got no TIE Fighter Pilot! The next wave of figures brought no relief either, nor the one after that! In fact Kenner made us wait until virtually the end of the ESB line before my white TIE Fighter finally got the captain it deserved, albeit mystifyingly on a backing card which didn't even show the character!
Was it worth the wait? Well the figure certainly looks the part, even if it is a bit (OK, a lot) too broad and stocky, and suffers from the same inability to turn its head as the stormtrooper. It also appears to have been sculpted by someone who liked buns of steel! At any rate, they certainly sculpted him with a most fulsome and rounded pair of cheeks, complete with figure-hugging trousers that border on giving him anal camel toe! In fact, baby's got so much back it actually impedes the movement of his legs, meaning some variants have a slight forwards lean because they can't stand up completely straight!
Kim Kardashian tributes aside however, this is a good figure, even if it does often suffer from that common Kenner complaint of not always holding its weapon very well. It's also a figure with precious few sculpting differences across its various variants. The raised bar China has the most obvious differences, but even they are on the back of the calves and boots where you'd hardly notice them! There is of course the infamous cockup 'COO on the front of his thighs' variant where, for reasons I still can't fathom, the ghostly imprint of the COO on the back of his legs can be faintly seen on the front of them!
However, even though the sculpts don't really vary all that much aside from a bit of stance width, and slight shade differences in the grey and orange paint used (with a red also existing, which I don't have), there are plenty of differences to be found in the Imperial emblems stamped onto his helmet. The most bizarre has to be the white AT-AT Driver emblems PBP inexplicably gave him in Spain, but even when the emblems were correct, their size and shape can vary markedly.
Anyway, here are my 6... Sorry about the dirt on some of them! The flash makes it look a lot worse... honest! :lol:
Imperial Glute Pilot - 01.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 02.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 03.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 04.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 05.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 06.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 07.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 08.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 09.jpg
Imperial Glute Pilot - 10.jpg
Nice one, thanks for sharing.
StarWarsFan
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Pomse2001 said:StarWarsFan said:
Wow 29 Tie fighter pilots, awesome army that you have, thanks for sharing them
Cheers mate, tbh that's an old photo has grown a lot since then.
Ruby2511 said:Here's mine
20191111_180245.jpg
Nice figure. Thanks for sharing
Snaketibe said:Pomse2001 said:Snaketibe said:The Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot. As a kid, I longed for this figure! When Star Wars came out and we got the first 12 figures, brilliant though those were, a stormtrooper had to substitute as the pilot in my white TIE Fighter in the absence of the genuine article. And the next 8 figures might have helped fill out your Cantina and Land of the Jawas playsets, but they didn't do a thing to rectify the TIE situation either!
But then Empire came out and we got some wonderful new figures... and still we got no TIE Fighter Pilot! The next wave of figures brought no relief either, nor the one after that! In fact Kenner made us wait until virtually the end of the ESB line before my white TIE Fighter finally got the captain it deserved, albeit mystifyingly on a backing card which didn't even show the character!
Was it worth the wait? Well the figure certainly looks the part, even if it is a bit (OK, a lot) too broad and stocky, and suffers from the same inability to turn its head as the stormtrooper. It also appears to have been sculpted by someone who liked buns of steel! At any rate, they certainly sculpted him with a most fulsome and rounded pair of cheeks, complete with figure-hugging trousers that border on giving him anal camel toe! In fact, baby's got so much back it actually impedes the movement of his legs, meaning some variants have a slight forwards lean because they can't stand up completely straight!
Kim Kardashian tributes aside however, this is a good figure, even if it does often suffer from that common Kenner complaint of not always holding its weapon very well. It's also a figure with precious few sculpting differences across its various variants. The raised bar China has the most obvious differences, but even they are on the back of the calves and boots where you'd hardly notice them! There is of course the infamous cockup 'COO on the front of his thighs' variant where, for reasons I still can't fathom, the ghostly imprint of the COO on the back of his legs can be faintly seen on the front of them!
However, even though the sculpts don't really vary all that much aside from a bit of stance width, and slight shade differences in the grey and orange paint used (with a red also existing, which I don't have), there are plenty of differences to be found in the Imperial emblems stamped onto his helmet. The most bizarre has to be the white AT-AT Driver emblems PBP inexplicably gave him in Spain, but even when the emblems were correct, their size and shape can vary markedly.
Anyway, here are my 6... Sorry about the dirt on some of them! The flash makes it look a lot worse... honest! :lol:
Thanks mate for sharing all this great figures and all the good info about the figures. Your collection looks fantastic
I agree that the legs could be better, most of the tie fighter pilots does not stand well and the hand could also be better for the blaster. I was not born in 1977 when the first figures came out, but if I had been a kid in 1977 or 78 then I would have thought it would be strange there is no pilot for the tie fighter. Any idea why kenner first made him in 82 ? :? one of my first star wars figures was the tie fighter pilot, I remember opening the moc in the 80s
Thanks, Lars
No, I don't know why it took Kenner so long to produce this figure, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was because he's technically a 'Star Wars' character rather than an 'The Empire Strikes Back' one. He appears on screen in the first film, but although we see a lot of (now blue) TIE Fighters in Empire, we never actually see a TIE Fighter Pilot in the film. Therefore, perhaps Kenner viewed him as an older character and hence less desirable to kids? If so, they needn't have worried as I, like countless other kids around the globe, snapped him up the second I saw him on the shelves for the first time in Tesco 'Home and Wear' in Ware, Hertfordshire in 1982 :-D
Yes that could be why kenner first made him in 82, but we saw him in a new hope, so I still think it is strange that they did not make the figure in the 70s :? I would say we see the tie fighter pilot more in a new hope than we see the at-at driver in esb and in 1980 they sold the AT-AT driver :shock:
StarWarsFan said:Pomse2001 said:StarWarsFan said:
Wow 29 Tie fighter pilots, awesome army that you have, thanks for sharing them
Cheers mate, tbh that's an old photo has grown a lot since then.
Wow do you have more pilots :shock: I think we all would love to see how many you have today
Mini99 said:
Gorgeous!
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