We're taking a look at another LEGO Star Wars set today, and it's once again from the third series of Microfighters. The 75128 TIE Advanced Prototype flies straight out of Star Wars Rebels in its miniature form, ready to take on those pesky insurgents. Is this mini set a worthy addition to your fleet? Or should it be scrapped in favor of a different ship design? Watch our video and read our review to find out!

Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

The box is crammed full of information and imagery. We have the LEGO and Star Wars logos, the requisite age range, set number, name, and part count, an image of the set flying out of an explosion, and finally the Microfighters and Disney logos. The back has some logos as well and also shows off the flick-fire missiles. You can see in the background that the TIE pairs nicely with 75127 The Ghost. And of course on the bottom is an ad to collect all six of the current wave of Microfighters, The side of the box is pretty plain but shows off a 1:1 image of the TIE Pilot who is included in the set.

Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

At only 93 pieces, the build is pretty quick. There is a little bit of SNOT, especially on the wings, but nothing too complex. Speaking of the wings, the solar panels are all symmetric, which makes the build a bit redundant. It's fast enough though that it won't really bother you.

Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

There aren't too any unique or many rare parts in the set. The ones that stand out are:

• Medium Stone Grey 2x2 round tile with TIE pattern - available in two other sets
• Medium Stone Grey 1x2 roof tile with plate - available in six other sets
• Medium Stone Grey 3x3 1/4 circle plate - available in 8 other sets
• Transparent Brown dish with TIE cockpit pattern - available in 9 other sets

Apart from the above, there's a decent selection of light gray, dark gray, and black parts, with bricks, plates, wedges, clips, and more. It's nothing mind-boggling, but for the cost ($10), it's not a horrible selection. It will certainly be a boon to your collection if you're looking to bulk up your grays for castles or rocks.

The TIE Pilot isn't unique to this set, and has been seen in a couple others based on Rebels. From the front he looks pretty awesome, with a nice amount of detail and good printing. On the back, however, we have a problem where a good chunk of the figure's pink head shows underneath. It would have been nice if either the head had black printing (or was a black head with pink printing) or the helmet came down further. The face is the pretty generic clone we've seen a lot of and isn't double-sided. While he's a decent fig, I would have rather had one of the Inquisitors, since they're more frequently seen flying the ship in the show.

The set itself is a pretty good representation of the TIE Advanced Prototype. I think they did a solid job of getting the rounded cockpit shape while allowing for a spot for the pilot to sit. The wings are quite nice and capture the shape and coloration of the ship well. The back is a bit plain, and I'm not sure I like their choice of a click hinge to represent the twin ion engines, but you're not going to be looking at the back too much anyway. Overall it's a little more deformed in its proportions than the Ghost, but still quite recognizable.

Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

The Microfighters don't generally have a huge amount of playability, and the TIE Advanced Prototype is no exception. The pilot obviously fits in the cockpit and the flick-fire missiles work as you might expect. I would have preferred the newer stud launchers, personally, but I can see how the latter were easier to design into the model. Finally the wings of the ship can fold up for landing, which is accurate to the show (unlike the TIE Advanced x1, which doesn't have folding wings). It's a nice little touch that adds to the fun.

Of course, if you buy more Microfighters, such as The Ghost, the fun increases! You can have all sorts of roleplaying fun with more ships, and they look cool on display next to each other if that's more your style.

Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

Pros What's to like? Accurate design Decent selection of parts Reasonable amount of playability Cons What's not to like? Back of the minifig's head is exposed Would have preferred an Inquisitor to the pilot Back of the ship is uninspired Flick-fires

As a Star Wars fan and a fan of the Rebels TV show, I like the TIE Advanced Prototype a good bit. I think it's the perfect companion to The Ghost, and will look great sitting next to it on display. I wish the minifigure was better or more appropriate, but that's a relatively minor complaint in the big scheme of things. There's some good parts in it, but I wouldn't buy it based solely on the pieces. It's a good addition to the collection of any Star Wars fan.

As always, we appreciate you taking the time to read and watch this review. If you have any feedback, please leave it in the Talkback or in the comments on Youtube, where you may also ask any questions you might have. We're working on more reviews all the time, so come back to BZPower to check them out along with all the latest LEGO news!

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