TIE Fighter - Mini

Description

Two wings and a ball

Hardly any spacecraft is easier to read at a glance than a TIE fighter: a spherical cockpit held between two large flat wing panels. That clean layout suits micro building well, because the model needs only a few elements to get the proportions right. It also explains why the design has stayed popular for so long. From A New Hope onwards, TIE fighters swarm through almost every space battle in the original trilogy, and later films and series have kept bringing them back in new variants.

Just 16 kinds of part

The 44 pieces come from only 16 different elements, so repetition is built into the set. That fits the subject: both wings are identical, and whatever you build on one side you build again on the other. For a young builder, that repetition makes the instructions easy to follow and gives a sense of rhythm. For a parts collector, it means several copies of the same small elements rather than a scattered mix, which is useful when you want matching pieces for your own designs.

More blue than expected

Black leads the colour list, which is no surprise for an Imperial fighter. More unexpected is blue in second place, ahead of light bluish grey and dark bluish grey. Whatever the reason, the data show a set that is heavier on black and blue than many later TIE models. Black parts are among the most versatile you can own, turning up in vehicles, buildings and scenery alike, and the blue elements add a colour that Imperial micro sets rarely supply in quantity.

Second-hand checks

Set 8028 is from 2008, so most copies today are second-hand. The parts list below gives every one of the 16 elements with colour and quantity, which makes a missing piece easy to spot when you count them out. Part numbers help you order replacements from a marketplace. The What can I build? tool on this page then compares your collection with other sets, showing which models you could already put together and what you would still need.

FAQ

Why does such a small set use so few different parts?

The TIE fighter is symmetrical, so the two wings repeat the same elements. The 44 pieces therefore come from only 16 different elements.

Does set 8028 include a pilot?

No, there are no minifigures in the set.

What colours are in this TIE fighter?

The main colours are black, blue, light bluish grey and dark bluish grey.