First Order TIE Fighter Pilot - TFA - 12-Inch Figures

The skilled pilots of the First Order launch into combat aboard advanced fighter craft, hunting down enemy vessels and protecting space around installations and warships.

Has the modern collecting community been noticing that there is a staleness in The Force Awakens line? The diversity in Star Wars figures is severely lacking. When we get a figure in the Build A Weapon line (or just say a single introductory scale), it’s a pretty good bet that we’ll see that same exact character with very few differences get translated into the other scales. Other scales could include 6” or 12” (or a completely different scale altogether). We don’t see too much thinking outside of the box. It would be wonderful to see no overlaps across the lines because it would give us a broader scope in character selection, and perhaps encourage collectors to go outside of their comfort zone and purchase things they normally wouldn’t. If you only have a character you love in one scale, then you may indeed just buy it after all. Maybe not. Obviously, some of the main characters in a Star Wars film are going to see every possible replication across the Hasbro brand. But when it comes to a character like the First Order TIE Fighter Pilot 12-Inch Figure, who was only seen for a few brief moments, you have to ask if a 12-Inch Figure is a wise choice for this scale. Maybe it is. But maybe it isn’t. We do not deny the validity of this scale. Some people like them. And some children need them. But maybe for next time Hasbro can choose some other “new” characters to introduce to the line next time.

The Force Awakens strongly mirrors Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, something we foretold around Force Friday when the characters hit shelves for the very first time. Even then it wasn’t a stretch to see that Episode VII would be “A New Hope 2.0”. Still, some continue to deny the 1:1 relationship of similarities in the film and instead decide to attack the Original Trilogy as being guilty of the same thing. We digress. The First Order TIE Fighter Pilot, which is a significantly streamlined version of the characters we saw in the Original Trilogy, is a nice design. We already have so many versions of this character. Dare we wonder if it was the best choice for a new 12-Inch Figure? Much of the same design has been carried forward for 2015, but the same black bodysuit, shiny black helmet, and distinguished chest box once again appear in a revised way. It does look nice, and it is all easier to see in the bigger scale. You can see the details etched into the helmet, the wrinkling in the outfit and the smoothness in the boots and gloves. For a simple action figure, the detail here is monumental. ]If you’re someone who likes to pose your figures, however, the First Order TIE Fighter Pilot is limited in what it can do, but we have learned that there is a market for these figures, and most importantly children with physical disabilities have benefitted from this figures simple, yet larger form. It is easier to maneuver for them.

Swivel shoulders and swivel hips essentially render the figure “useless” when trying to attain some interesting action-styled poses. But that’s the fate of the basic figure line and the inherent design of simple “5POA” (although these figures have seven points of articulation). It’s all about making budget action figures. Our point is that if Hasbro is going to make action figures with only seven points of articulation, then this is the way to do it. One thing however that might irritate collectors with the First Order TIE Fighter Pilot 12-Inch Figure is that Hasbro didn’t bother tooling the new blaster pistol for this figure. They got lazy and just included the standard First Order stormtrooper blaster instead, and this glaring white blaster just looks completely out of place with the solid black First Order TIE Fighter Pilot 12-Inch Figure. Was it that expensive to tool an appropriate gun for this figure. Is it because it would be too small and a choking hazard for the market it is intended? Couldn’t they have cast it in solid black plastic to camouflage it a bit more? Anyway, there are still many things going forward for the First Order TIE Fighter Pilot 12-Inch Figure. Even the squared helmet and the reduced sized chest box show how attuned Hasbro is to the details of the actual characters (and maybe not their accessories). These are just some of the enhancements that make these characters fresh again.