This is something different, isn’t it? Mr. LegoFan123 requested a review of 8087 TIE Defender, but unfortunately I don’t have that set. So I decided to a review by building the set in LEGO Digital Designer instead of physically. 8087 TIE Defender is a 2010 Star Wars set that retailed for £39.99 (UK) and $49.99 (U.S.). Based on current Bricklink prices, it’s not exactly cheap right now. Let’s give it a look.

First things first: building errors! When building in LEGO Digital Designer, building errors are practically inevitable. The only building errors I encountered were these:

Inaccurate/missing minifigure prints Missing cockpit canopy print LEGO Digital Designer didn’t let me connect the 1×4 tiles on the wings due to a collision error, so I substituted them with 1×4 curved slopes

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s check out the minifigures! There are only two, which stinks. The first is just a generic stormtrooper. Blah. The only thing interesting about him is he has a plain black head, not the ANGRY CLONE of today. The other minifigure is the TIE Defender Pilot. He is reallllllly outdated. No printing on the helmet visor makes the helmet look plain, and the torso print is atrocious, even by 2010 standards. The minifigure selection is probably the biggest letdown of the set. The only build in the set is the TIE Defender. It’s not exactly very pretty, honestly, and I’m kind of underwhelmed. Now before you go “this is a 2010 set”, 2010 did have mostly good-looking sets like 8098 Clone Turbo Tank, 8091 Republic Swamp Speeder, and 8088 ARC-170 Starfighter. This set and 8096 Emperor Palpatine’s Shuttle seem to be the ugly ducklings of the line. The TIE Defender was really, really repetitive to build, due to its six-wing design. You build three identical struts that hold the wings. You then build two mirror-imaged wings, attach it to a central block, then repeat it three times to attach it to the struts. Eh. Here’s the back of the TIE. It’s mostly unremarkable, with one central engine that has a blue glow. Nothing much to see. The cockpit opens up on a single click hinge. There’s literally nothing inside except for a space to slot the TIE Pilot. No controls, no seat, nothing.

Behind where the pilot sits is an ugly exposed 1×4 red SNOT brick. It’s kind of a weird (and ugly) addition, honestly. There’s also a brown Technic brick above. The set has six flick-fire missiles, one on each wingtip. That’s quite a lot. I guess if you like flick-fire missiles you might like this set. Most importantly, though, the wings rotate. They spin freely on a Technic axle but the cockpit stays gyroscopic, much like 75050 B-wing.

Here’s a look at the wing connections (sorry for the split-color background, Bluerender acting up again). It’s just two Technic pins into the 6×6 inverted slope element used for a lot of the old TIEs. Don’t know how secure it would be, but I doubt it’ll be very secure.

Overall, this is not a very good set, honestly. The build itself is kind of meh, while the price and minifigure selection are quite poor.

Builds: 3/5

Minifigures: 2/5

Playability: 3/5

Price: 2/5

Personal Rating: 2.5/5

TOTAL: 2.5/5

Yeah, I don’t recommend buying this set. Hope this helped, Mr.LegoFan123! 🙂

If you’re not Mr. LegoFan123, still feel free to comment! 🙂 I’d love to see your comments and thoughts on this set!

VaderFan2187 out! 😀