Recently a friend of mine recieved a second-printing copy of the core set. I had previously read that the quality had been improved on with the painting and assembly of the models, especially the X-wing themselves, but I didn't realize it was such a big improvement. Needless to say I was very jealous of his miniatures! The X-wing looks so much better than the first printing; lasers were perfectly straight and glued on level, paint was crisp and not so heavy. The Tie Figthers even looked better, with paint jobs more resembling that of the Interceptor.

So I was curious, do the new shipments of Y-wings and Advanced look improved? And also what about the X-wing and Tie Fighter expansions, has anyone noticed the difference? Looks like I will be buying some more core sets.

P.S. I'm not complaining at all about the quality increase, just curious about which components saw the improvements (and therefore need to buy!)

well… I would like to add something of value, but I have to ask… When was a second print released? I thought the few items on shelf were still from 1st print

Perhaps only the core set has seen a reprint? Seems like maybe I read that new core sets came with the wave 2 shipment. I could be very wrong. Either way there is a noticeable difference between core sets.

that's good to know.

I just bought my first set about a month ago and the second last week and I'm very happy with the quality of the models, I guess as the game gains popularity it becomes easier to FFG to apply more resources and get better quality products

I just got into this game, and bought a TIE fighter on Monday that was far better than either of the TIE's in my Core set (purchased from Amazon a month ago). The Core TIE's were off center, the posts are tilted, and on one of them the paint looks like it was slathered on. I could probably do a better job, and I'm by no means a good painter. The expansion has a crisp, bright paint job, and every detail is clear on the ship. I'd guess that the Core set is an older release, so I think there is something to this.

(edited to add detail)

The restocks that arrived with Wave 2 had the improved painting. Big box retailers that still have vast stores of the early runs (Targets around here all have the thick paint jobs easily visible through the box lid).

Comparison pix here:

http://goblinhall.com/2013/03/12/x-wing-retooled/

well the y-wings i picked up one of the engines is glued on really bad and the tie fighter seems to be flying 30 degrees up lol. also if i looked at the cards its definatly different ink used one is alot darker than the other

RedWilde said:

Wow… that's not just a better paint job - it's a new sculpt! Look at the detail on the wings… there's stuff there that simply isn't a part of the original model.

Can anyone confirm if the TIE Advanced has been resculpted? Compared to my son's snap-together model of that ship (and looking at the film), the mini's cockpit window is too large by quite a bit.

[EDIT: The guy at that site says those missing details are actually on the original model, just obscured under gobs of paint. But I dunno… I see no trace of them on my models, and the surrounding details are certainly clear enough!]

The guys who posted the picture at goblinhall think that it's not a new sculpt, just better application of paint which shows the existing details to better advantage. I haven't seen any 2nd wave, so I'm not sure. But I would be surprised if they resculpted so soon after the initial release.

It's definitely just much better paint. If you take the tip of an XActo and go exploring, you can find the hidden detial lines buried under the thick paint used in the earlier runs.

I can say from experience that it is indeed not a new sculpt, the paint job and assembly just look that much better. Eager to see if the Y and Advanced look better in the coming shipments.