So last up for our toy reviews is the Lego Ultimate Collector’s Series Tie Fighter.

There have been a few Tie ships made over the years by lego, including the Interceptor, Bomber and Vader’s Tie Advanced, but all of them never really captured the feel and look of the ship.

The original was the Tie Interceptor in 1999, which in a bizarre move used blue Lego as the trim color. Over time Lego groups designs got better and better but still never really hit the mark, from being a bland grey color, not the iconic black, to overall design sloppiness, they never felt quite right.

That is until the 75095 Tie Fighter.

This set hits ever mark and really captures the ship design we have all grown up with. With some really unique choices in elements and trim, this ship is near perfect.

Coming in at 1685 peices and a price of $229cnd.

Like all of the current Lego sets, all the elements come in numbered bags, which as you know I am not overly fond of, it really takes the fun guess work out of building Lego, having to hunt for parts. I know, I could just dump them all together, but really that would feel like a waste of time since the instruction are all laid out in a bag to bag set up.

This set holds a total of 13 sets, some containing multiple bags as well.

The build was very straight forward with very little challenge to it, unlike the B-Wing I previously built, this set seems rather boring by comparison. The wings themselves were fun as they were rather unique, but all told this build took only about two and a half hours.

There are 3 distinct parts to the build, cockpit, left and right wing, and stand. That is it.

The cockpit design was well mad and feels really solid.

I pity those poor pilots though, that cockpit barely has elbow room in it.

The wings had a really awesome connection mechanic that sadly I failed to capture. Once built there is a small shaft that inserts into each wing, and then 2 small hings come to lock it in place, it is hard to describe, but it holds thing together very securely without traditional connectors.

The completed model stands over 16″ tall.

The stand itself is a little lack luster thought, there is a hole in the bottom of the ship that fits on a smooth round peg on the stand, this sadly does not lock it in place, and instead forms a swivel. Now it is not a huge gripe, but from just normal house vibration from walking and such, the set tends to rotate a bit off center.

I would have much preferred a square peg, square hole design over the rounded as that would have kept things in alignment no problem.

Lego also decided to go with a mini-fig for this set as well, giving you one Tie Pilot that sits nicely on the base next to the sign.

All in all a good build, but nothing spectacular. An obvious must have for Lego Star Wars fans and at a decent price point as well.

A solid 7/10 and a lovely addition to the collection.

So I am back our second toy review at CCG.

This time we have the amazing Star Wars Lego B-Wing, set 10227 from the Ultimate Collector’s Series.

This set originally debuted in 2012 and retailed for just $199us, sadly  I missed the boat on the set going into moratorium and as with everything Lego, you either buy it retail when it is available, or pay through the nose later.

This baby set me back to the tune of $299us from Ebay and with shipping, tax and duty ended up closer to the $450cdn. Now that may seem like a boat load of cash for a Lego set, but it pales in comparison to waiting another year or so.

There are many Star Wars sets that are into the $2000 range and above. So as painful as it was, it could have been much worse later on.

This was one of my all time favorite ships growing up, having an on screen time of maybe 1 minute at very best in Return of the Jedi, it was memorable minute.

It is a very unconventional ship, and that showed through in the very unconventional build as well.

The set comes in at a 1487 pieces and has 3 manuals.

A lot of the design here was mirror images of each section, Lego did a very cool job of making this set look seamless, slapping a front and back identical wing or mid-section together and having it look like one complete section.

Something to note as well, Lego seemed to go through their spare parts bucket and find a rainbow of color choices for the interior, unseen elements. Now we oft get a few bizarre colored bricks in sets like that that will go unseen.

But never have I seen this much of a rainbow used, it is like they had a massive pile of unused bricks they had to get rid of and just tossed anything and everything they could into 10227.

When things came together though, boy do they look great.

The cockpit is an exceptional standout with some very unique design elements. They added what would usually be a tank track to two giant Technic tire rims to form the spinning cockpit.

The main thrusters were also well thought out, using the before mentioned mirror design, they snapped together seamlessly, as did the main bottom wing.

One of the biggest complaints I have read online has been about the bottom gun attachment. It was a bizarre choice for such a sold ship otherwise, to be holding onto a massive bulk of lego with just 8 pegs. This could have been built a lot more solid in my opinion, but that being said, I did not have it fall off even once, something that a lot of others did have happen.

This is not a play set though, and more of a model, so really if it is just sitting on a shelf, it should never be an issue.

All told the build took about 4 hours, but I am also a very seasoned Lego vet. There were many complex portions of the ship, and it was one of the more enjoyable builds I have done.

The finished product looks amazing on the shelf next to the rest of the collection.

The only other complaint I have is the plaque that has all the details on it, the sticker itself is too small. Every other set I have owned has had a sticker that covers about 98% of the plaque, this one though is millimeters away from the edges on all side, it is almost as if they did not size it right in post.

That is a small gripe though, as it is black on black and not too noticeable from a few feet away.

All in all, a fantastic set worthy of the UCS moniker.

A solid 8/10 and a highly recommended buy now before the price goes up even more.