TL:DR (It's X-wing relevant because they're the right size to use as proxies)
would have pix (I'm sure most of you have seen them however), but my phone is about dead and I'm all "eh.." So here's a pair of stock photos:
NOT ALLOWED TO USE THAT IMAGE EXTENSION... Whoops... look it up I guess.
Snagged the Striker and the U-Wing at my friendly, local, only-store-for-miles-Mart.
I've been pretty "meh" over the U-Wing since the word "go", but I was willing to shuck out a fiver for it.
I play Imperial, I prefer Imperial; regardless of how dorky I like seeing new variants of TIE's; and once I kinda sorta got over the split-hatch faux pas I was willing to give the Striker a shot at a spot on my shelf next to my other little toy ships. I wanted to dig this ship.
Then I opened it.
Problem 1: The wings [cough] solar panels... [ahem] Adaptive Ailerons... They're too large. It's not readily apparent in the isometric shot above, but compared to FFG's teaser, they seem out of scale to the fuselage.
Problem 2: The hinges (well, the wings still)... this part is apparent in the above pic. (Yea, FFG's will probably flap also... the TIE Ornithopter)
Look:
Come to think of it, the fuselages of the Black series and the FFG ship are about the same size... but see how far down the wings are sloping? Can't get my Titanium to do that.
Honestly considered buying a pair and using the solar panels to scratch build some Interceptor wings for one of my regular TIE cockpits.
Problem 3: It's boring... this one is harder to define, and could come down to just "not liking the ship", so to speak. I want to... but it isn't working all that great.... which even as a little kid I was skitchy enough that out-of-scale parts made me unable to enjoy playing with certain toys. (The Action Fleet X-wing was the only available X-Wing with appropriate looking proportions, remember that?).
One slightly cute bit is the little cannon on the bottom swivels... shame the FFG one doesn't have a turret slot, wink wink.
Now the U-Wing.. I didn't want to like it... dumb wings, overall shape highly derivative of previous signature ships (X and Y wings specifically). Dropship with a cockpit positioned like a fighter where the pilot doesn't even have a good view of where he's hovering or landing, etc. etc. (Which is just me looking for something to dislike, despite the scale problem I've never let "realism" or "practicality" get in the way of appreciating coolness and storytelling). Nope... didn't want to like it...
And then I opened it.
First off, I'm in no position to do a proper comparison, but it seems as if the Black series is perilously close to the scale of the FFG one.
(dangit Google is not giving me a good picture of this thing at all, if I remember tomorrow I'll take one myself... probably not, but anyway)
Ok, you can't tell it, but the wing tips are touching the top and side of the cardboard box. Just holding it up to a large base, I tell you this thing looks super close to the FFG one.
Now the sudden love affair... is... difficult to explain. It's fun to play with... (yeah, grown college educated man with four kids who runs half of a family construction company and yess... I will fly little plastic spaceships around making pew pew noises... when no one is looking).
It captures the imagination; I could picture the crew soaring off for adventure and danger... Rebels strafing Stormtroopers to extract wounded troops; pirates using stolen UT-60's to prey on commercial passenger liners, etc.
Once I realized I enjoyed the wee thing I started making excuses for all the things that griped me before.... aside from Lucasfilm's purported explanation that wings house sensors and are used to keep them away from engine emmissions (or whatever).. I thought perhaps the s-foils also contained the shield projection equipment, and in cruise mode they were spread wide to even the shields out... but when the time came to disembark troops, you swung the foils (and therefore the shield generators) forward for maximum coverage.
And perhaps there are cameras and such to let the pilot and copilot see where bottom/front of the ship is falling without exposing that transparisteel to enemy fire...
And hopefully those Y-wing esque foreward facing cannon under that Y-wing esque (hell, not even "esque") cockpit are really really powerful, thus justifying them being completely fixed on a landing craft, instead of being able to swivel or depress at least a little.
Of course it still has it's wigglyniggles. Trying to reconcile the shape of the cockpit and cargo bay with the pix we've seen of the interior gave me a headache. But overall, I'm pleased enough that I contemplated purchasing a second one, and have now modified my X-Wing purchasing plans to include this expansion.
I'm really tickled by the Black series, especially after the dissapointment that was the Hot Wheels stuff.. don't get me wrong, Hot Wheels ships have their place. They're practically unbreakable, making them perfect surrogates for my autistic 10 year old son, who makes note of the fact that Daddy likes these little ships, so he should too. (Even when he's not really in a "Star Wars" phase, he'll want to come fly ships around if he sees me doing it... just a little muscley with his grip, and flying ships around might mean pitching them across the room occasionally)
I started this habi.. hobby just as... well, something to buy, really. The neatest cheap thing in the local -Mart and I was bored. I was snagging the ones I thought were cool on occasion and sticking them on the little shelf above my desk, determined not to host hte collecting parasite again. Then I realized I needed to hunt down an A and B-wing for my shelf real bad... Now I'm starting to think I should just be snagging all of them.
Are there any other Black Titanium ship collectors on here? Does anyone know where to find a complete list? How readily available are previous waves? Have they released an Interceptor yet??
Edited by juxstapo