Found one at the Clovis, California Toys R Us this afternoon   Price was $169.99 + tax.  With California's high sales tax, it came out to a little over $183.  For those of you looking for this item, the item barcode is: 3050941288.  The SKU #, per my receipt is, 285603.

Overall, this thing is massive, highly detailed, and way cool.  I've included a number of photos and review below.

Boxed Item (Front)


Boxed Item (Rear)


Box/Item Barcode


Box Contents


Overall, not that many parts and assembly is a breeze with just snapping in the wings and inserting the antennas, hatch, and guns.  It should come apart pretty easily as well, meaning that if I get tired of it, I can put it back in the box.

Once assembled, this thing is gigantic!  You can see the 6" pilot figure for scale.  In the background, you can see how this compares to 1:18 scale and 1:6 scale items.  That's the 21st Century Toys 1:6 scale radio controlled M-5 Stuart tank in the background, being dwarfed by the TIE Fighter   Its a little wobbly when sitting on the wings, but is overall rather sturdy and does not seem to have used as rubbery of plastic as on the smaller Class III vehicles.  I can see some bending occurring with the wings the longer the item sits on them, though, which means you may want to hang it.  This will definitely look spectacular in hanging in flight!  The paint detailing is good and they even added some weathering.











Comparison shot with the 3 3/4" Class III toy of the First Order TIE Fighter


The interior is my favorite part of the model.  Probably one of the most detailed cockpits we've ever gotten on a Star Wars toy.  Lots of controls, levers, buttons, screens are intricately detailed and painted.

Cockpit Overhead View


Pilot's Station Interior Details


Gunner's Station Interior Details


The figure itself is pretty decent.  I like the red markings on the helmet.  It comes with a sidearm, but no holster to attach it.  I hope Hasbro eventually releases a single-boxed version of the TFA TIE Pilot so I can have the ship properly crewed.  But for now, the OT TIE Pilot will work well enough as the gunner



Its a little tricky getting the pilot figure into his seat, if anything due to its utility belt.  The headrest is removable (or at least I was able to easily remove it) making placement of the figure easier.  Would have been nice if the whole seat apparatus lifted out to put the figure on it, like on the recent 3 3/4" scale TIE Interceptor and TIE Bomber.  It was a little easier to get the figure into the gunner's station.

Pilot in seat (minus headrest part)


Fully crewed ship using an OT TIE Pilot figure


Overall, I'm very, very pleased with the Black Series 6" scale First Order Elite TIE Fighter.  Its simply an incredible ship and its awesome to see a Star Wars vehicle replicated on such large scale.  Its proof to me that Hasbro will still take on "big ticket" items, but it also has me thinking about future vehicles in the 6" scale...  I have a good feeling we may see a TFA X-Wing sometime down the road as after all the TIE needs an adversary.  Then what about other ships?  If they did the TFA TIE Fighter, why not an OT TIE Fighter or X-Wing?  Heck, the A-Wing, Snowspeeder, Luke's Landspeeder, TIE Interceptor are all "small" enough to be feasible in the 6" scale now - even some of the slightly larger ships like the Y-Wing and B-Wing.  Lots of possibilities. 

Still, if you have the cash to get this ship, don't miss out! 

Finally opened the TIE I got on Friday.  I rather like it and would place it among the best of the vehicles that have come out thus far, as others have said.  Funny, but in my area in Central California, while Poe's X-Wing is nowhere to be seen, there are still a few of the TIEs around and its really the superior toy.  The wings are smallish, but not too out of proportion with the cockpit ball.  Mine did not have any significant warpage.  Since this is supposedly a newer and more advanced version of the TIE Fighter, I can live with the smaller wings.  Detail is pretty decent as well on both the exterior and interior.  Granted, its nothing like the highly-detailed TIE Interceptor and TIE Bomber from a few years ago, but its a lot better than the old vintage and POTF type TIEs.  My only real gripe is the seating arrangement.  I know it all has to do with cost, box size, playability, etc, but based on models I've seen of the new First Order Elite TIE Fighter, the two crewmembers sit back to back, not facing each other in opposite directions.  Perhaps we'll get a more deluxe version at some point.  But seating arrangement aside, its still a great toy! 

I've managed to get the complete wave of the 6" figures, Rey's Jakku speeder, the elite TIE fighter, and a few figures, but have not been able to find Poe's X-wing anywhere, either last night or this morning.  Crappy or not, that was the ship I most wanted to get. 

I made a good sweep of my area this morning, checking several Targets, Wal Marts, and a Toys R Us.  Plenty of the new TIE fighters.  I did find the X-Wing on Amazon.com, however, and managed to get $10 off the purchase price, which brought it down to the same price it is at Toys R Us, etc.  I have Prime so the shipping was free and it will arrive in a couple days.  Should have done that first before I went out this morning as I easily burned $10+ in gas driving all over town for little gain!

Disconcerting thing was that in at least two Target Stores that I hit between 8:00 and 8:30am - stores that were not open the previous evening - things looked very picked over right at the offset.  Not sure if employees got first grabs, but it almost looks like they did

Guess it's time to finally get Netflix...  But anyhow, am over at my brother's house in SoCal for the weekend, who has Netflix and have seen at least the first story arc which gives some chilling insight into how Order 66 will work in ROTS and how all those "nice" clones become Jedi killers and who knows what. Don't want to spoil too much, but if you like Clone Trooper Fives, the story arc may find some scenes difficult...  One of the better CW episode arcs in my opinion.

Haven't posted here since I can't remember when...  No loss of interest in Star Wars or the toys, just not that much exciting until the past few weeks

I got a Slave I myself, which arrived in the white shipping sleeve.  Corners on the box were dinged a bit, but as I typically open my items, it wasn't a big issue.  The ship and all parts were there on mine - no sign the actual box had been opened or tampered with.  I noticed the issues with the wing-spring right away.  I found that by disengaging the strut on one of the wings and turning the part with a little force, it snapped into the flight mode and held there.  Its not really anything to cause me too much worry...

I was a bit disappointed by the Han Solo in Carbonite figure, which was just a hollow shell - I wanted something more solid that at least had some weight and would make a "plunk" if I stood it upright and tipped it over.

Still, I am very happy Hasbro made the ESB version of Slave I using the large-scale tooling.  Its a classic ship and was well over due.  It saved me from having to eventually repaint my Clone Wars version, which was the initial reason why I got that.  Now my Boba Fett figure has his ship      

Great episode and my favorite from the story arc overall.  I particularly liked how it firmly established the Anakin/Vader and Tarkin relationship.

I'm not as well versed with the EU aspect of Star Wars as many others.  I've only dabbled in it a little, but its something I've largely stayed away from as a personal preference.  I tend to take that which springs from the mind of George Lucas as being the ultimate cannon as the Star Wars universe is, afterall, his ultimate creation.  So, to me the CW series is more cannon than what appears in much of the EU material...  Still, that's not to discount the fact that even Lucas contradicts his own work and certainly not to discount the vast creative body that makes up the EU and which has given the Star Wars universe a sense of life and vitality far beyond that of any other sci-fi genera.

I guess what's needed in the Star Wars community is some sort of equivalent to the "Council of Nicea" (to draw a simple historical comparison to the church council called by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 CE to determine an official religious cannon for Christianity) where Lucas and leading representatives of the EU community can hold a council and sit down and hammer out the "official" story line for Star Wars... Just a thought    
   

In retrospect, Asoka, should have died in last night's episode of "The Citadel" in the Carbon Freezing process (which was a scene I though was unnecessary and cheesy).  Afterall, we know from ESB that carbon freezing was supposed to be dangerous - Lando notes that if you put someone in the carbon freezing chamber it could kill them - yet in the episode, the Jedi and Clones seem to go about the process with pretty much a routine or devil-may-care attitude.  So, they all jump in the freezing chamber, including Asoka (unknown to Anakin), something goes wrong and she doesn't survive.  They arrive at the Citadel, get thawed out, and there's the dead Asoka.  Anakin blames himself, Obi Wan lectures him about how he instilled his rebelliousness into his padawan and look what it got him, their mission nearly gets compromised, Anakin gets pushed closer to the Dark Side... and well we know the rest.

Sorry, just having too much fun