LEGO 75421 Darth Vader's TIE Fighter Review: SMART Play

This is Darth Vader's TIE Fighter (set 75421), the cheapest way into LEGO's new SMART Play system and the second SMART Play set we've built after Luke's Red Five X-Wing. It's 473 pieces for $69.99, it's marked 8+, and it's an "All-In-One" set — meaning the SMART Brick, the charger, the SMART Tag and a SMART Darth Vader are all in the box, so you don't need to own anything else to make it work.

I'll say up front that I'm not a massive Star Wars person. I know the broad strokes, seen the movies, and I've played the video games, so I'm not the right guy to tell you whether this is a faithful TIE Advanced x1. What I can tell you is whether it's a good set of bricks and whether the SMART Brick is worth the money — and where other reviewers who do live in this universe landed, because they're pretty split on it.

What you get in the box

The box is the standard modern LEGO layout, with the SMART Play "All-In-One" badge in the top right corner and the three included SMART components called out down the right edge — brick, tag, and SMART Vader. It's a useful bit of packaging, because the SMART Play range is split between All-In-One sets like this one and cheaper "Compatible" sets that assume you already have a brick.

Here's the set at a glance:

• Set number: 75421
• Theme: LEGO Star Wars (SMART Play, All-In-One)
• Pieces: 473
• Price: $69.99 / £59.99 / €69.99
• Age: 8+
• Minifigures: 2 — SMART Darth Vader with a red lightsaber, and a Rebel Fleet Trooper (not SMART) with a blaster
• SMART Play components: 1 SMART Brick, 1 wireless charging pad with USB cable, 1 printed SMART Tag tile
• Side builds: Imperial fuel and repair station, Rebel outpost with a dual stud shooter
• Dimensions: TIE Fighter is ~4 in (10 cm) high, 4 in (11 cm) long, 5.5 in (15 cm) wide
• Battery: ~45 minutes of play per charge
• Release date: March 1, 2026

Inside it's numbered bags and a booklet, nothing unusual.

One thing worth flagging for anyone who, like me, is tired of stickers: there isn't a sticker sheet in this set. The TIE's markings — the printed cockpit dish and the two 2x4 hull tiles — are printed elements. After spending the X-Wing review wishing LEGO would use more printed pieces, I'll take the win.

The SMART Brick comes in its own little box with a yellow wireless charging pad and a yellow USB-A to USB-C cable. No AAAs, no battery hatch, no tiny screwdriver. You set the brick on the pad for a while, and that's the whole setup.

The minifigures and that cape

Two figures: a Rebel Fleet Trooper with a blaster, and Darth Vader. Vader is the SMART minifigure here — his torso carries a printed SMART Tag on the back, which is how the brick knows he's nearby.

Vader's cape is a nice touch. It isn't the stiff plastic-y cape you get on most figures — it's a soft, slightly spongy stretchable fabric, cut short, with two shoulder holes and a neck hole. It hangs better and it doesn't fight you when you're posing him. It's a small touch, but it's fun.

The Rebel Fleet Trooper is a straight reissue rather than anything exclusive — he's turned up in a handful of sets since 2023 — but he's a good-looking figure and he gives the outpost side build someone to man it.

The build

The instructions are the usual LEGO standard — big, clear steps with good part callouts, which is why this scores well on that front even though the model itself is simple. The TIE goes together from the middle out: cockpit floor, then the frame, then the dome on top.

Then the round hull ring that gives the TIE its shape, and the plates that clad it. The center section is braced with brackets and Technic beams clamping down on that donut-shaped middle, which is a big part of why the finished thing survives being flown around a living room.

The red bay behind the pilot's seat is where the SMART Brick lives, sitting on the printed SMART Tag tile. The red bar in front of it is the trigger: pull it and it raises a pair of red paddles across the brick's color sensor, which is what fires off the laser sound. Everything red inside this model is functional rather than decorative.

The wing panels are built as flat sub-assemblies and then clipped on in pairs. The double clips feel flimsy while you're holding them, and then they aren't — the wings stay put.

This is a chunky build, and the shaping is play-first. The back of the cockpit is left open so the SMART Brick can go in and out, and that's the compromise Star Wars fans have been loudest about — from the front it reads fine, from behind it reads unfinished.

SMART Play in action

Drop the charged brick onto the tag in the cockpit and the TIE wakes up. Swoosh it and you get engine roar that changes with the direction you move it; pull the trigger and you get laser fire. The brick has a gyroscope and a color sensor, so it's reacting to motion and to specific colored parts rather than to any button-per-sound wiring.

The two side builds are where the color sensor earns its keep. The Imperial station is a black octagonal pad with Vader's console, a blue fuel nozzle and a green hammer: the blue nozzle triggers a refueling sound, the green hammer triggers repairs. Neither color has anything to do with Star Wars — they're there because the brick reads them.

Facing it is the Rebel outpost — a tan rock pad with foliage, a satellite dish, a console for the trooper and a dual stud shooter aimed at the TIE.

The worry I had going in was that Smart Play would be too much — that the electronics would take over and leave you with a gimmick wrapped in bricks. It isn't like that. The brick sits in a bay, the tags are printed tiles, and if you never charged it you'd still have a TIE Fighter and two side builds. It adds a layer instead of replacing one, and that's the main thing I wanted to know.

Two practical notes if you're buying this for a kid. First, you don't need a phone: the LEGO SMART Assist app exists for volume, troubleshooting and firmware updates, but the brick works out of the box without it and without an account. Second, the brick runs about 45 minutes per charge and sleeps after a few minutes of inactivity — a shake wakes it back up.

Lighting options

The only lights here are the ones inside the SMART Brick, and they're play effects rather than display lighting. If you want the TIE to actually glow on a shelf, there's a LocoLee LED light kit made for 75421 that clips into the model and lights the engine housings and cockpit. It sits alongside the SMART Brick rather than replacing it, so you keep the sounds. It's a niche add-on for what is fundamentally a kids' play set — but if this one ends up on a shelf rather than the floor, it's the cheapest way to make it look deliberate.

How it compares to the other SMART Play sets

The important thing to understand about SMART Play is that the bricks aren't sold separately. If you want in, your first purchase has to be an All-In-One set, and 75421 is the cheapest door into the system.

For $20 more, Luke's Red Five X-Wing gets you 108 more pieces, two SMART minifigures instead of one, five SMART Tags instead of one, and three side builds instead of two. It turned out to be one of my favorite sets of the year, and if you're choosing between the two as a gift, that's the one I'd hand over. At the other end, Throne Room Duel & A-Wing is the big one — 962 pieces, two SMART Bricks, three SMART minifigures and five tags for $159.99. We haven't built that one, so treat it as a pointer rather than a recommendation.

If you're shopping for the shelf rather than the floor, the SMART Play range isn't the right aisle at all — the LEGO 75438 Star Wars Yoda Bust is $30 less, aimed at adults, and built to be looked at.

Is the LEGO 75421 Darth Vader's TIE Fighter worth it?

Since I can't rate this one on Star Wars accuracy, here's what people who can are saying, and they don't agree. New Elementary came away impressed by the technology but "underwhelmed" by how little the sets do with it, and couldn't justify the cost. Rebrickable liked SMART Play more than expected but said the open back "looks crap" and that the model is begging to be modified. Digital Spy gave it 4/5 and called the price a small investment for screen-free play. BrickPicker aggregated it into a "Skip It," and LEGO's own site is the harshest number in the pile: buyers there rate value for money 2.66 out of 5, and only 26% say they'd recommend it. Amazon buyers, who are mostly gift-buyers, average 4.6 stars.

That spread makes sense once you see the set in person. As bricks alone, $69.99 for 473 pieces isn't a bargain, and if you strip the electronics out you're left with a stubby TIE and two small pads. As a toy, the SMART Brick does something no other LEGO set does, and an 8-year-old flying this around making their own engine noises is going to be delighted that the ship makes them too.

So: this would be fun for a Star Wars fan, and it'd be a lot of fun for a Star Wars fan who's eight. If that's who you're buying for, it's an easy call. If you're an adult buying it for the display shelf, or you mainly want parts for your money, skip it and put the $70 toward something built to be looked at.

You can read LEGO's own rundown of the features on the official 75421 product page.