I'm sure FFG didn't mean for this particular model to be displayed on the show floor, today, but a quick-acting photographer managed to grab a shot of this wave 8 model - the "TIE: Punishest" - before it was removed!

#toteslegit

#notphotoshopatallwhy

(EDIT: Yeah, swapping to new host because apparently photobucket now has a Jawa up their Nerf Herder)

WELL I LIKE IT!!! Give me 10!

You named it the TIE/Pu 2.

I appreciate you.

the only thing better than 2 missiles and 2 torpedo slots is all of the missile/torp slots!

I'd actually really love to see a view of the Punisher from this angle, it's beginning to grow on me a bit. Less Tie Bomber with extra stuff and more like a proper heavy bomber that shares some design aesthetics.

Still looks better than the k-wing.

Needs more pods!

I would, without exaggeration, buy that.

As it is, I'm planning 4 Punishers minimum.

Hey, I wonder if xanderf doesn't like wave 7...

The passive-aggressiveness is strong with this one...

This will definitely make ordinance playable.

Needs a couple more wings too.

it's a flying Stalin's organ!

Needs more cowbell.

Hey, I wonder if xanderf doesn't like wave 7...

Nah, the problem is really just this one.

The Scum fighter is pretty cool looking. The Hound's Tooth I'm not necessarily a fan of, but it definitely does look 'Star Wars', and I can see one of them in a collection being sensible. Even the K-Wing, while truly hideous, is at least original. And FFG did pretty good with the mini, so...heck, I can see getting a pair of them. They even look almost logical escorted by E-Wings...

The TIE: BM, though, is just stupidly lazy looking. I mean, yeah, TIEs have long been 're-arrange the parts', but at least they always brought something new. The TIE Defender could just as easily have taken a TIE Interceptor and stuck three Interceptor panels on it - but it didn't. The body was changed, the panels are COMPLETELY different. The TIE Interceptor, itself, borrows the same exact body and struts that the TIE Fighter has...but with radically different panels. Ditto any two other TIE comparisons - they all have some things in common, or re-used between them, but each design introduces SOME variation.

Except for the TIE: Pu. It's just a TIE bomber, identical everything, except slapping three more (identical) weapon pods on to it.

It's pure lazy, and that I cannot abide.

At least four of those extra pods should be cockpits so that the gunners can lock on with all the ordnance at once.

Still looks better than the k-wing.

You only say that because you're looking at the false picture that was posted earlier in the day.

FFG has already published an image of the ACTUAL model:

Needs more more.

The passive-aggressiveness is strong with this one...

I see nothing passive here.

It's a bomber with boost, so clearly it isn't JUST a bomber with extra weapon pods.

And this makes Empire top tier to sho'

You know, take off the two external pods and I actually think it looks better with eight/nine.

It's pure lazy, and that I cannot abide.

This, I think, is why the people that don't like it don't like it. It's not that it's any more ugly than the TIE bomber, it's that the TIE bomber came first and it's a clear variant. A lot of people would prefer some change things for the sake of it ship than something that looks, to them, kitbashy. In many ways the Punisher is a slightly more sensible design than the bomber: the cockpit's in the middle for example and the offset engines would (were it not for Star Wars running on Rule of Cool and thus design practicalities being irrelevant to function) give it more maneuvering ability.

Had this design been first, and the bomber second, people'd be saying much the same about the bomber. The thing is, there's something about the Punisher that to a lot of people looks, well, right. That's why it alone, out of all Galactic Battlegrounds' custom designs it appeared in other material and like the TIE phantom was adopted by FFG.

Its younger brother did not.

Everyone trying to get the sold out TIE Bombers just forgot what their quest was after seeing the Punisher.

Everyone trying to get the sold out TIE Bombers just forgot what their quest was after seeing the Punisher.

Speak for yourself: I'm still checking the "Upcoming" page every 10 minutes to see if the boat has arrived.

Nothing can replace the classic TIE Bomber in my heart!

At least four of those extra pods should be cockpits so that the gunners can lock on with all the ordnance at once.

Macross Missile Massacre!!!