Curious to know if anyone other tmanthegreat, myself and I believe one other person who posted they bought one on jd, have picked this up? Wondering what the likelihood we get #2 in the series is.
I picked this up on Monday at my local TRU (I had 20 dollars in Rewards dollars and a 10 dollar gift card, so it took some of the sticker shock away), and I'm pretty happy with it. It's definitely large and impressive, to say the least, and I don't regret buying it at all. I really can't add more to the reviews that tmanthegreat's, well, great photographs have already shown other than to say the cockpit is really the highlight of the ship. Hasbro went above and beyond with the details inside the cockpit and didn't cut any corners there.
The wings themselves are sturdy, although I'm a little concerned about the fact that the "tires" don't sit flush against the wings themselves (there's a tiny gap on mine; is it like this on everyone's?). The wings are also "permanently" attached, but only do so with two clips inside the "tires" on the pylons from the cockpit/ball assembly, so it still makes the wings a bit wobbly, although when it's standing up (especially on carpet), this doesn't really affect the stability much. As for taking up space, I have Queen Amidala's Royal Starship sitting in the (carpeted) floor of my collection room and the TIE straddles it perfectly with just enough clearance to not hit the RS's roof, so it took up less floor space than I feared.
The trickiest part of the whole assembly is getting the TIE Pilot into the cockpit. You have to basically bend his knees completely backward (at both double joints like this < ) with his feet still pointing forward so he will fit well. It also helps if you raise his arms while doing so and adjust them last. Make sure you clip the waist clip above the belt since his pouches get in the way otherwise. I also can't find a space to store his blaster pistol inside the ship, so you'll probably want to keep that somewhere else separately.
Overall, despite some minor quibbles, it's an impressive piece, and well worth picking up. I hope the wave with the single packed TIE Pilot shows up in decent numbers at retail so I can find an extra gunner to stick in the co-pilot seat.