TIE Scout was probably bigger with that weird thing on top because, as a long range scout, it needed more space for a pilot to be able to stretch, sleep, eat, etc. while on long missions.
It's a whole back cabin, not just on top. Has room for a whole crew. It's as long as a TIE bomber (except for one source that mixed feet and meters and made it 3.3x longer than a bomber.)
I had it as a trading card in the 90s (part of a Pokemon like game, but more complicated, with some cards being locations that provide bonuses and locations for battle, others being characters like luke or Vader, others being hand held weapons like blaster pistols, others being land vehicles, others being droids, others being ships, etc).
TIE Crawler made sense as something the Warlords were throwing together when they didn't have the right parts for other vehicles, the Mauler being made at the height if the Empire made no sense.
As a terror weapon under the Tarkin Doctrine, it does actually make sense. They can be mass produced, would be generally immune to non-rocket man portable weapons, are quick and can swarm a defensive position faster than the rockets can be reloaded, and will make a bloody mess of any enemy infantryman who is caught out in the open… and by make a bloody mess of them, I mean they’ll be cleaning him off the treads with a hose. The psychological effect from watching squadmates popping under one of these and used to paint the battlefield would be, in a word… disturbing. Winning against organized resistance with regular access to heavy mounted and crew served weapons and man portable rockets, along with vehicles of their own, it will not. Subjugation of softer civilian populations however… it may have been a favorite among more sadistic governors and Moffs.
@@umbra6772 The TIE Maulers actually make the most sense in a Pre-Yavin period of time where either they were either largely engaged in population suppression and actions against disparate resistance movements, or were still at least under the illusion that they were fighting against unorganized and/or uncoordinated rebel groups. A logical shift away from Mauler production would be after the publication of Mon Mothma’s Declaration of Rebellion (Around 2 BBY in both continuities). A post Endor production run would see the Maulers pitted against a New Republic with openly industrial production levels of man portable anti-vehicle weapons and weapons platforms… precisely the sort of thing the Mauler would have been rendered obsolete by. More intelligent governors and Moffs probably would have begun phasing them out once they noticed that some cells like Saw Garerra’s Partisans were exceptionally well equipped and well informed and started asking the important questions about Rebel logistics.
@Brian Runyon if I recall, SFS had a bunch of extra TIE cockpits lying around and pitched the idea of a TIE tank as a ground vehicle that could be repaired by the same technicians who repaired TIE craft, all so they could get some more cash from the Imperial military.
To clarify, it is important to remember that none of the TIE Experimental M1-5s were finalized designs. They look so odd because they were, as the names reveal, experimental prototypes designed to test specific functions and all controlled from the safety of a Shuttle or ship at range, effectively making them remote controlled drones so that one could have the cheapness of Droid fighters, but with human adaptability from a safe distance. If aspects would have been successful, then the aspects that excelled would have been focused on and new designs tailored around those in the next iteration.
Which is probably also why they removed the laser canons as they weren't needed for tests. If any of them made it to production they probably would still have them
@@DavidisWarpd only partly, they were also experiments to test the viability of remote controlled Starfighters and more specialized designs. The Defender was the result of the research into the TIE Advanced X1 and the TIE Avenger combined with technology obtained from two alien parties.
At least the idea of shielded TIEs and the legendary TIE Defender (with the short-lived yet grandiose Missile Boat following suit) happened because of all this experimental prototype kriffery, followed up with the legacy craft that is the TIE Predator. Anyways, pays to go beyond the casualness of Squadrons, this X-Wing video games know-how.
TIE/D actually makes sense if you have TIE fighters but no pilots. I actually like it as it makes sense that the Remnant wouldn't have alot of pilots and needed to recycle existing hulls
@@DIEGhostfish It's easy to forget about these days, but the Tie/D predates the prequels. It isnt a vulture droid but worse... Vulture droids are Tie/Ds from a more civilized age. If the world devastators story was revisited in newcanon, it would absolutely be a rogue CIS mining/manufacturing facility spitting out Vultures.
The Imperial Remnant under Palpatine isn't going to reuse the Vulture design. One, they already have the machinery to make TIEs, and two the Droids were the loser bad guys in the Clone Wars, they wouldn't want to be seen in the same light.
TIE Interceptor will always be my favorite TIE variant, great design, incredible speed and maneuverability, decent firepower, and a great lore reason for being made (before Disney retconned everything at least)
I would really jump in a TIE- defender for survivability, the avenger was mostly a V-Wing starfighter in the classic TIE-Configuration, and the TIE Baron is just a buffed up Interceptor, I think.
The Defender always struck me as too much ship for its size. Every other TIE had some tradeoff because technology had limits. You only have so much power for so many system and so much engines to move so much mass so if you wanted something fast and maneuverable you could only have so much ship. The Tri-Fighter is a much more reasonable vehicle with much of the Defender's capabilities, only less.
The Imperial Design Bureau would like to thank you for your feedback. Revulsion was the intended reaction to our TIE development program. We cannot express how difficult it is to maintain proper levels of fear when the citizenry puts up posters of your fighters simply because "they look cool."
@@felicitys3621 that was *a* variant, though the one people tend to think of most as a crime against engineering was the "DIE-Wing": A Y-Wing with the large engines replaced by a TIE's solar panels, because why not slap that together out of spare parts instead of putting extra engines on a TIE cockpit?
@@nicholasfarrell5981 No. The TYE-Wing (known to opposing pilots as DIE-Wings), actually were worse they took the nacelles from a Y-Wing and mated them to the side of a TIE Fighter Cockpit. The resulting craft basically had the weaknesses of both the Y-Wing and the TIE Fighter making it really a subpar fighter. You are thinking of the Y-TIE which is a better better as it retained the shields of the Y-Wing and sported quad TIE Fighter Laser Cannons with two of them replacing the Ion Cannon Turret on top of the cockpit. It also sported the Ion Engines of the TIE Fighter as well. That said. There in fact some very interesting Ugly Fighter Variants out there. Like the Chir'daki which is a set of s-foils from an X-Wing mated to a rotating collar on the back of a TIE Cockpit ball. The resulting fighter was a Fast and maneuverable fighter sporting quad laser cannons along with a Hyperdrive. Then there is the Clutch which took the basic Cockpit Ball of a TIE and mated three fins to it. Kind of like the TIE Phantom just not typical TIE panel wings. It even sported shields and an Ion Cannon on the top fin. A RPG Tabletop Game a friend was playing once sported the Z-Wing which was the Body of a Z-95 Headhunter with the S-Foils of an X-Wing mated to it. That fighter was an interesting design.
I'm personally a fan of the TIE-clutch, which is basically just a regular TIE cockpit ball with three sets of collector panels/wings and (I think) some uprated guns. They may even have thrown a shield generator in there to even further fly in the face of the Tarkin Doctrine.
@@demi-femme4821 yeah. I just find it funny how they apparently value the non-piloted versions over the manned ones. A good pilot is way harder to come by than a good machine
You're not giving the Raptor enough credit; it doesn't just look silly, but it violates the logic of starship design. It has 4 cannons, 2 missile launchers, is more maneuverable and can even mount a hyperdrive and sometimes shields while being smaller than an A-Wing. It makes every other ship design that came after stupid for not using the similar ultralight, ultracompact components to create pocket-sized death-machines.
The smaller tech required to fit inside such a limited space would probably have been much more expensive to produce than standard starfighter parts, and probably harder to maintenance as well. Like the difference between a desktop PC and a compact laptop.
Its conodicaly almost the same lenth as a normal TIE/ln. The design has a bigger ball in that one bad drawing we have of it beacuse its from Cracken's Threat Dossier. I think the fanart picture of it that Geet showed makes more sense.
The tie tanks were meant to use cheap mass produced materials, with the pilots being washouts from the fighter schools. So they were using spare parts laying around, and finding a use for the washouts (they were already familiar with the controls, so easier to get them into the tanks)
Also anyone who’s used the tie mauler in Empire at war knows just how silly these things are. They can crush infantry which can’t escape due to its speed, and self destruct dealing insane damage. Impractical but fun in swarms
The TiE Raptor is probably the most terrifying one, replace the organic with a drone, you could carry thousands of them just completely overwhelming the opposition. But that actually makes sense 🤣🤣
except that droid pilots have proven to be inherently inferior to organics in SW countless times. That was part of the reason for the poor performance of the TIE Droid.
@@w1ndgeneral226 It's essentially like a sub-par variant of the Ball from the Gundam universe....except that the Ball was actually decent, and in the hands of a skilled pilot it was absolutely capable of taking out an enemy mobile suit by itself. Even more than that, they were very, *VERY* cheap and easy to both produce and maintain in large numbers and they could even be quickly and easily retrofitted out of non-combat space pods if need be. Though I'd argue that the Ball is a better overall design, as it's decently mobile when it needs to be, has some hefty firepower with it's top-mounted 180mm Low-Recoil Cannon, and it also has two manipulator arms mounted to the bottom that can be used in very clever ways (for instance, Shiro Amada grabbed a chunk of debris from a destroyed warship's hull to use as an impromptu shield while engaged in one-on-one combat with a Zaku R-4). And yet the Ball still was given the nickname of the "Floating Coffin".
The TIE Crawler was the weirdest. I mean it's literally a tank with the TIE fighter ball cockpit. I know it probably doesn't count but I really think it should
That mf literally has two big blind spots, and they TRACKS no less The first tank in the world slapped at the very least a machine gun on the sides, the empire literally has no excuse for this
@@choreani and the armor isn't even good enough. Wasn't even good enough to compete with most Rebel tanks. The TIE Crawler may as well be made of paper mache. And the design just feels sarcastic and lazy. I mean, what did they do, take this ball cockpit and slap tank treads on the sides?
@Prince Of Pokemon it's actually pretty durable, starfighters, even TIEs tend to be built better than most ground vehicles, going by how WEG scaled their vehicles. AND THE crawler had reinforcement added inside and out.
According to what i heard the Crawler only existed because Sienar really wanted to sell a bunch of spare TIE cockpits that they made and were collecting dust after Endor.
Some of those are the result of Raith Sienar getting drunk or coming up with stuff for fun... And then some jackass in the Navy actually wanted them into production, and Raith Sienar being also a businessman he did it.
It's not an official variant but I still think the cobbled together "TYE Wing" deserves mention. One of the more common "uglies" from Legends, they are made from the body of a TIE with the engines of a Y-wing. It featured the firepower and durability of a TIE fighter combined with the speed and maneuverability of a Y-wing; unsurprisingly it was also referred to as a the Die-wing.😅
To be honest the TIE D could work from a strategic POV. When pilots are rare to come by and all you have is mass producability and swarm tactics, the TIE D starts to look more attractive
Especially when you consider that "pilot training" would take about as long as a software update. You could almost deploy them as fast as you can produce them.
@@justindunlap1235 That's actually what was happening. The Dark Empire was using the World Devastators, giant mobile factories that consumed a planet's resources and converted it to both making the Devastator larger as well as building new material for the war effort. The World Devastators were actively pumping out TIE Droids built from the very materials they were collecting, meaning that even if you destroyed every escort a Devastator had it could just rebuild them soon.
"The TIE Bizarro was an excellent concept and idea. When it was introduced as an RPG ship, our squadron was equipped with four of them, and I had the privilege to pilot one until I had the opportunity to switch to a TIE Scimitar. The turbo laser was a powerful asset, giving a substantial attack boost to a squadron of TIE fighters. A single hit was all it took to take down an A-Wing and even obliterate the reinforced shields of an X-Wing, which typically withstand six double hits. The original TIE Fighters, as you may know, were not equipped with landing systems. The TIE Bizarro, however, was ingeniously designed to dock using the same landing clamps as a standard TIE Fighter. This facilitated the formation of an attack squadron comprised of 8 TIE Fighters and 4 Bizarros, as opposed to 12 TIE Fighters requiring support from TIE Bombers and their torpedo payload. This change represented an efficient and effective evolution in our combat tactics."
I think Palpatine sought to get some simple pleasures out of seeing people’s reactions to any outrageous and impractical TIE series vehicles on the table, hence why any of them exist.
Not gonna lie. I love it when I see Geetsly’s or Ecks use screenshots of those old (now cringeworthy) 3D models I made back in Junior High. Just makes me smile thinking back on them.
In fairness the TIE-D came out well over a decade before the Prequel movies did so at the time it was rather cool! And in universe they were pretty dangerous - we see them in swarms taking out tons of far more advanced fighters that the New Republic fielded against them. In universe World Devastators could just suck up debris from destroyed craft and debris, fabricate and deploy it out as TIE-D's mid battle as reinforcements so they could literally be forged in a fight!
The only thing I'll defend is the idea to make TIEs drone fighters, given how cheaply quickly they could be made and the fact that they didn't have shields, they were more suited to the role of a B1 in a sense, just throw it at the enemy and overwhelm them with numbers. Why waste the lives of perfectly good soldiers who could be used for other tasks by having them pilot these flimsy things when you could have made them drones. The Empire may have taken some inspiration from the Vulture Droid with the TIEs, attempting to combat them, but they didn't take the most effective part, the Droid aspect.
Do forget about the horrific junk fighters that became common after the Battle of Endor, and the innumerable junk fighters that were made out of Tie Fighters parts.
As silly as the TIE Raptor looks, it could dish out some punishment, considering its armament. Though imo, the TIE Hunter would be my TIE of choice. Having almost as much ordinance as a Y-Wing with the speed (and S-Foils) like an X-Wing? Pretty deadly, I'd say.
The lack of shields and the inability to use the speed and firepower at the same time are both pretty glaring issues with the TIE Hunter. In terms of perfection, you simply can't beat the TIE Avenger and Defender.
@Grand Admiral Zaarin That's a good point. I may adore the Hunter, but I can't deny how incredible those latter two TIE craft are, man. The Defender I'm still fond of from back when I played Galactic Battlegrounds. Good times.
@@GumiNightPower you should give TIE Fighter Total Conversion a look then. It's a mod for X Wing Alliance that brings it into the modern day and it's pretty amazing.
I actually like the idea of several of these! Especially the TIE raptor. It would be pretty fun to do a mark two of some of the designs imagine if the scout was repurposted with the mini-turbolaser and shield? The booster could be made into a add-on perhaps with hyperdrive etc
If I were to fly anyone of those, it'd be the Experimental M2 BigGun, mostly due to it's firepower. Can't imagine using it in a starfighter dogfight though, it seems more like an anti-armour weapon like the Ju-87 G1 from ww2.
My favorite and lesser know Tie is the Tie Star Cruiser. Big, Slow, and Ugly but their always a sense of Dread seeing them slowly lumber through the battlefield because you know it can whip out your army in one shot. Many times one of these ship turn the tides of a battle for me in Star Wars Galactic Battleground. Haven't seen anyone talk about it even in Tie related video and I always suggested these ships.
Honestly I'd argue that the experimental ones for as dumb as they were are likely idea boards that served an additional purpose than just being a failed ship from day one
Why was the TIE Defender on the thumbnail? It was better armed, shielded, and had more flexibility than any other Republic fighter of the era and it was one of the best starfighters _period._ It was as fast as an A-Wing or TIE Interceptor, it was as well shielded as an X-wing, and as well armed as a B-Wing easily. Unless its purely to draw a distinction, it seems bizarre to put it on the thumbnail for this video.
Not the case in the slightest. The TIE wings don't block anything. It's the ball cockpit that does. The TIE Fighter has the exact same field of vision as the Raptor
(4:55) Someone still plays "Spore"? The game of my childhood. Anyway, I think airlock is a little overkill for creators of these "designs". I would send the men responsible to Kessel, maybe there they'd put a thought about what've gone wrong and what they'd do better.
There were also the abominations created by pirates where the engines of a Y-Wing were grafted to the ball cockpit of a TIE Fighter to create something that was the worst of both worlds by having poor defenses and being slow and sluggish. In the X-Wing books they are most known for the speed with which they get exploded when fighting anything at all piloted by anyone remotely competent.
The quality of video production dropped like a rock in this video. A lot of what was being said didn't match up with the images shown,despite clearly having the images for it soon after.
Honorable mention goes to the TIE Brute. It’s essentially a TIE/LN with a turbolaser attached to its side like the Experimental M1. I don’t know if it also has standard laser cannons, but I do know that attaching a capital-ship grade weapon to a small starfighter is silly when it takes more fuel to fire, and they’re not as fast or precise enough to shoot down opposing starfighters.
Alright, since we have a BLATENT attack against the fine designers of Seinar Fleet Systems and related works. I (As an Upstanding imperial Citizen) feel the need to defend these projects as needed and important to starfighter development. AHEM (TIE Raptor) The TIE Raptor actually was a pretty big improvement on the Standard TIE Design. It had more than twice as much firepower as the Standard TIE Fighter, as it carried 4 lasers and 2 missile launchers over the standard dual lasers. On top of that, the Raptor was eventually slated to be equipped with shields (As a few prototypes had been already). Development wasn't able to continue on account of the death of Warlord Zsinj. Its Also Worth Noting that the Raptor was actually as maneuverable as the A-wing Fighter, due to its streamlined solar collectors (which seem to have the same surface area as a standard TIE at close inspection. (TIE Droid) The TIE Droid was partially designed as a paired weapon with the World Devastator Mobile Factories. Its worth noting that the World Devastators were able to manufacture these ships by the squadron mid-planetary invasion, and send them straight from production to the battlefield. The Reason TIE/D fighters were so prevalent in Palpatine's Dark Empire is that manpower was at an all-time low. The Devastators could manufacture standard TIE's but there just weren't enough pilots. That being said, the TIE/D (While not as smart as an organic pilot, what droid fighter is?) Had the stats to match. They were faster and better armored than TIE Interceptors and it's worth noting they were competing against New Republic E-Wings. On top of that, these squadrons were also able to swarm and destroy larger capital ships like when they Destroyed a Mandator III Star Dreadnaught. Perhaps not a perfect weapon but far from a failure in design. (TIE Recon) What our propagandist here forgot to mention was the TIE Recon was a first-generation recon starfighter, and the precursor to the TIE Vanguard and Tie Scouts. This Recon Starfighter was used more as a last-minute checker. A Ship like a Gozanti cruiser would drop into a system, deploy the craft, then jump back into hyperspace. The fighter would then cruise about the system, using its more advanced sensors, and slightly faster engines to stay out of trouble. Eventually Re-docking with its carrier and jumping away with intel. As the Rebellion intensified these modified TIE's were eventually developed into their own proper recon variant in the TIE Vanguard. (which you can see at 3:07) (TIE Scout) The TIE Scout is actually a really good craft when you think about it. It's larger yes, but that's because it was designed with long-range, long-term recon missions in mind. The Ship could have a crew of up to 3. Including a pair of pilots that allow for long flight times. It also housed its own hyperdrive (Giving it both stealth and independence from the bigger ships) It had the full suite of Comscan equipment plus rations and crew comforts needed on long-term deployments (After all a crew might be deployed for up to 6 months) The ship has cargo space reflecting that. These ships were even sold in civilian variants designed for deep space exploration. While it was no good in a fight, if it was caught in combat its mission purpose would have failed anyway. (TIE Mauler) The Mauler has an interesting history. And our dear propagandist is just outright wrong about most of his information. During the rise of the Empire, the Mauler was put in place as a fast attack craft. To give a real-world equivalent, it might be analogous to an IFV more than an MBT. It has a top speed of 97 km/h (60 mp/h) given by its SFS P-s4 twin ion engines. The Mauler was designed as a rapid anti-infantry platform and was essentially a cheaply made stand-in before better-purpose tanks were manufactured. This is why it has the TIE Cockpit, as it was essentially made out of surplus TIE Parts. Their Tripple medium blasters also gave them a frightening attack power when these vehicles were massed together, able to take out even larger heavy vehicles as quickly as they shred poorly equipped insurgents. Fast, reliable, cheap, and surprisingly effective weapons platform is why they never really went away and the design would be developed into a purpose-built tank. (Century Tank/ TIE Crawler) Essentially a purpose-built Calvery Vehicle made from the Designs of the Successful TIE Mauler. The Century Tank is essentially the same vehicle, with the same top speed, power, and cheap parts; but these vehicles had more armor and firepower. Its light Turbolaser gives it the punching power to match some of the most heavily armed vehicles of the galactic civil war and beyond. Its long design also gave it excellent climbing capabilities for a non-repulsor lift vehicle. All in all, it's a great option if you can't afford an AT-AT to back you up. TIE Experimental Series I'm not going to go into detail for these ones, as their source material is extremely limited, and most of it would be repetitive. What I will say, is these crafts were all successful models, in their purpose. All of their elements went into the construction of one of the Empire's true Ultimate Weapons. The TIE Defender. Combat data and weapons trials were all used to make the defender the ultimate assault starfighter. Each Craft was useful individually, true. I could talk about the Tie Bomb flying into a hanger and exploding, the Tie Bizzaro out maneuvering X-wings and having the firepower to threaten larger ships or the TIE Warhead firing saturation rockets like a Harrier II, or the TIE Biggun blowing apart Y-wings with a single laser blast, Or the TIE Booster being faster than anything else flying. But all of that would never be seen even if the project hadn't been interrupted by rebels, it already did what it was supposed to do. Anyway- So I figured I'd play devil's advocate to Geetsly's here. I got all my info from Wookiepedia, feel free to check the facts there (using legends sources because a lot of them don't even have cannon counterparts). I actually learned something new from this, and that was that the TIE Experimental project actually lead to the TIE Defender. Which is pretty neat, as I always felt like they were really cool. I also have a soft spot for quite a few of these ships and tanks. Just a disclaimer this isn't anti-Geetly's hate. I quite enjoyed the video, even if I don't agree with his interpretation. Anyway, cheers, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
One thing to remember is that TIE fighters never actually landed on the ground. TIE fighters were always launched from special racks in the hangar bay. This is something that Disney grossly overlooked/ignored and drives me crazy every time I see a TIE fighter "land" on the ground
im so into how this channel will not break the 4th wall as in the imperial engineers were idiots and not the design team on a given project was on weed
"experimental" another word for prototype.... someone doesn't know anything about manufacturing or RnD, most things look stupid like these ships before the ideas are refined
If I HAD to pilot one of these it would be the kamikaze bomb. I know, it's pilotless, but I'd rather be blown to bits by a proton torpedo than be seen in an M1
I have that. It think it called “TIE Fighter Collection”. It had two standard TIE, Darth Vader’s TIE Advance, and a Droid TIE, making it the first lego Star Wars set to feature a vehicle from the Expanded Universe.
The fun thing about Tie Mauler is, because it was drived on chains and are fast, the pilots can just mow over infantry. it is still bad, because it need one shot from a rocket launcher or a laser cannon from a T2B to destroy it, but at least, it had a terrifying effect for infantry
Oh, that last one is just so comical, I have to presume it was either the result of trying to scam people out of money, OR it was a designer who was just like "FINE, You want some new variant, I'll give you this monstrosity, then you'll understand why we haven't changed the base design..."
As soon as you mentioned that the previous ones 'were at least starfighters', I knew the tanks were coming. I freaking love the TIE Tanks, the Mauler and Crawler. They're just so goofy and scrungly. I love them.
Imagine there were a bunch of Imperial remnant warlords in the sequels and you could tell how strong their faction is based on the level of how Tie Variants look. The better they look, the stronger the army is. The laughably bad, the weaker they are.
Unless you were there trying to defend the Mon Calimari Cruiser Liberty against them, then you wouldn't dare call the experimental tie swarms useless. By the force I still get ptsd from sll those concussion missiles snd kamikaze ties.
Lots of really horrible designs here both in terms of function as well as aesthetics. I do think the TIE/rc recon variant makes a lot of sense though. They’re reusing a common, preexisting design instead of inventing a whole new spacecraft for a specialty purpose. The TIE/rc wouldn’t be as optimized as a purpose-built new design, but there would be a lot of cost savings, crossover in the spare parts that could be used, and less training requirements. Pilots and maintenance crews who know the standard TIE fighter could cross over to the recon variant more easily. There’s even a real world parallel to this. The F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter was used as the basis for the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jet. The internal gun was removed and weapon stations were replaced with equipment to detect and jam radar systems.
I liked the Tie Scout. Most of the others I get, but I liked the scout. Like a small car home when you go camping. Plus I could see the upper part as housing the hyperdrive possibly. I think it was okay, though why the Empire would have more then a ISD2 Hangars full of them… I would not understand.
The fact that the Empire chose to discontinue the clone trooper program and instead fund these ridiculous projects is a testament to why it only lasted a generation.
There is one good reason I can think of for removing the standard laser cannons from the cockpits of the M-1 and M-2. With the upgraded weapons they may not have had a large enough power plant to support the standard weapons as well, so they removed them in favor of dedicating as much power to the larger weapons as possible. No excuse for removing them from the M-3 though.
A couple of defences: - The idea of the TIE Scout, I think, was that it should be fitted with a tiny Master hyperdrive, similar to those of cruiser class ships, so that it wouldn't leave any theoretically traceable logs in the hyperspace lane systems, that smaller conventional craft would use to travel by. Hence, the massive hump on it's back. - The M3 was just mobile artillery, designed off a TIE due to the cost-efficiency of those blueprints. Maybe it could've had a single turret for defence, but it wasn't really supposed to be in the thick of battle, just creep along the outskirts, and snipe a quick big hit, before returning to their hangar to reload. It didn't need dogfight lasers. - The TIE Bizarro doesn't land, it either gets guaranteed destroyed in any engagement that would welcome a fast mobile turbolaser, or provide ineffective supporting fire, area denial in squads, far enough away from combat, to return to hang in tractor suspension, like the Milenium Falcon hung beneath the frigate in the closing scene of ESB.
7:30 I think this could have a reasonable use, mainly as a starship killer where it would be based at a small imperial base that lacked any local star destroyer cover. It's use would likely be to intercept and unload missiles into hostile starships for quick destruction before fighters could be deployed. It just reminds me of some WWII aircraft that were designed to launch really quick to intercept bombers, make a couple strafing passes and then return. Given that reason, the removal of it's standard weaponry could make some sense, where it would have been to reduce weight as it wouldn't be expected to have a long drawn out fight, but a quick strafe or two of a much bigger ship before returning
TIE Maulers may be utterly ridiculous, but squishing Rebel troopers with them in Empire at War never gets old. Empire at War is probably also why I have a soft spot for the TIE Scout. It may look silly, but it is so very, very useful in-game. I think if the TIE Experimental M-3 kept the wingtip lasers of the proper TIE Interceptor as well as the rocket launchers, it might be a halfway decent fighter
Well yeah and even the LEGO set itself looks awesome, but LEGO can do that with any ship/vehicle. I mean I even think that the TIE Crawler looks cool regardless. Is it a stupid idea that makes no sense? Absolutely. But it's literally a TIE Fighter but instead of wings it has tank treads! What's not cool about that?
"Whichever Imperial bureaucrat signed off on this should have been thrown out an airlock" Given that it was probably Palpatine, I wholeheartedly agree. :P
The only reason I can see the original lasers removed from the ones with the wing mounted ones is maybe it wouldn't have the energy to run both. But that doesn't exactly work for the concussion missile one since missiles don't tend to require a ton of energy that isn't stored inside the missile. And you'd think they'd just be able to swap from big guns to smaller ones and redirect the reactor's energy
TIE Scout was probably bigger with that weird thing on top because, as a long range scout, it needed more space for a pilot to be able to stretch, sleep, eat, etc. while on long missions.
It's a whole back cabin, not just on top. Has room for a whole crew. It's as long as a TIE bomber (except for one source that mixed feet and meters and made it 3.3x longer than a bomber.)
The drawing at 9:25 is from a sourcebook mixing feet and meters, it's supposed to be TIE Bomber length.
I had it as a trading card in the 90s (part of a Pokemon like game, but more complicated, with some cards being locations that provide bonuses and locations for battle, others being characters like luke or Vader, others being hand held weapons like blaster pistols, others being land vehicles, others being droids, others being ships, etc).
I would’ve redesigned it with the wing panels out if the way as much as possible (similar to the TIE-Reaper) and changed the name to TIE-Recon.
@@eds1942 Eh, the scout likely needs the extra radiators for its output,/extra solars for silent eunning
TIE Crawler made sense as something the Warlords were throwing together when they didn't have the right parts for other vehicles, the Mauler being made at the height if the Empire made no sense.
The Tie Crawler/Maller both don't make sense to me. I mean, why make a Tie, used for space fighting, a ground attack vehicle?
As a terror weapon under the Tarkin Doctrine, it does actually make sense. They can be mass produced, would be generally immune to non-rocket man portable weapons, are quick and can swarm a defensive position faster than the rockets can be reloaded, and will make a bloody mess of any enemy infantryman who is caught out in the open… and by make a bloody mess of them, I mean they’ll be cleaning him off the treads with a hose. The psychological effect from watching squadmates popping under one of these and used to paint the battlefield would be, in a word… disturbing.
Winning against organized resistance with regular access to heavy mounted and crew served weapons and man portable rockets, along with vehicles of their own, it will not. Subjugation of softer civilian populations however… it may have been a favorite among more sadistic governors and Moffs.
@@Zeknif1 That I feel like imo furthers the fact it made more sense after the fall tho
@@umbra6772 The TIE Maulers actually make the most sense in a Pre-Yavin period of time where either they were either largely engaged in population suppression and actions against disparate resistance movements, or were still at least under the illusion that they were fighting against unorganized and/or uncoordinated rebel groups. A logical shift away from Mauler production would be after the publication of Mon Mothma’s Declaration of Rebellion (Around 2 BBY in both continuities). A post Endor production run would see the Maulers pitted against a New Republic with openly industrial production levels of man portable anti-vehicle weapons and weapons platforms… precisely the sort of thing the Mauler would have been rendered obsolete by. More intelligent governors and Moffs probably would have begun phasing them out once they noticed that some cells like Saw Garerra’s Partisans were exceptionally well equipped and well informed and started asking the important questions about Rebel logistics.
@Brian Runyon if I recall, SFS had a bunch of extra TIE cockpits lying around and pitched the idea of a TIE tank as a ground vehicle that could be repaired by the same technicians who repaired TIE craft, all so they could get some more cash from the Imperial military.
The designers who created these aircraft truly possessed hidden talent that they should have kept hidden
Wouldn’t they be spacecraft rather then aircraft
U right
The tie interceptor with rockets wasn't that bad put the guns back on and its completely redeemed
i laughed way to hard bruuuh ☠️🤣
HIDDEN TALENT!!! KEEP IT HIDDEN🔥🔥👹👹❗❗🔥🔥🔥
To clarify, it is important to remember that none of the TIE Experimental M1-5s were finalized designs. They look so odd because they were, as the names reveal, experimental prototypes designed to test specific functions and all controlled from the safety of a Shuttle or ship at range, effectively making them remote controlled drones so that one could have the cheapness of Droid fighters, but with human adaptability from a safe distance. If aspects would have been successful, then the aspects that excelled would have been focused on and new designs tailored around those in the next iteration.
Which is probably also why they removed the laser canons as they weren't needed for tests. If any of them made it to production they probably would still have them
@@dominiklehn2866: experimentals with turbo lasers might still not have any regular laser canons due to power restrictions.
The m1 - m5 were the defenders research prototypes.
@@DavidisWarpd only partly, they were also experiments to test the viability of remote controlled Starfighters and more specialized designs. The Defender was the result of the research into the TIE Advanced X1 and the TIE Avenger combined with technology obtained from two alien parties.
Also, any concerns about landing are easily addressed by noting that they weren't intended to land. They docked in cradles.
At least the idea of shielded TIEs and the legendary TIE Defender (with the short-lived yet grandiose Missile Boat following suit) happened because of all this experimental prototype kriffery, followed up with the legacy craft that is the TIE Predator.
Anyways, pays to go beyond the casualness of Squadrons, this X-Wing video games know-how.
TIE/D actually makes sense if you have TIE fighters but no pilots. I actually like it as it makes sense that the Remnant wouldn't have alot of pilots and needed to recycle existing hulls
And the World Devastatirs churned them out *En Situ.* Endless fighters.
And add in it was made BEFORE the vulture was designed in real life
@@DIEGhostfish It's easy to forget about these days, but the Tie/D predates the prequels. It isnt a vulture droid but worse... Vulture droids are Tie/Ds from a more civilized age.
If the world devastators story was revisited in newcanon, it would absolutely be a rogue CIS mining/manufacturing facility spitting out Vultures.
The Imperial Remnant under Palpatine isn't going to reuse the Vulture design. One, they already have the machinery to make TIEs, and two the Droids were the loser bad guys in the Clone Wars, they wouldn't want to be seen in the same light.
@@paulrasmussen8953 my understanding is that it was also cheaper and had a longer flight time than the vulture droid.
TIE Interceptor will always be my favorite TIE variant, great design, incredible speed and maneuverability, decent firepower, and a great lore reason for being made (before Disney retconned everything at least)
What about the updated tie baron, tie difender, tie avenger?
my personal favorite was the TIE defender, but that one actually had good reason to be the way it is.
I prefer the TIE defender
I would really jump in a TIE- defender for survivability, the avenger was mostly a V-Wing starfighter in the classic TIE-Configuration, and the TIE Baron is just a buffed up Interceptor, I think.
The Defender always struck me as too much ship for its size. Every other TIE had some tradeoff because technology had limits. You only have so much power for so many system and so much engines to move so much mass so if you wanted something fast and maneuverable you could only have so much ship. The Tri-Fighter is a much more reasonable vehicle with much of the Defender's capabilities, only less.
The Imperial Design Bureau would like to thank you for your feedback. Revulsion was the intended reaction to our TIE development program. We cannot express how difficult it is to maintain proper levels of fear when the citizenry puts up posters of your fighters simply because "they look cool."
Would like to see a video about fighter mashups. Think they called them “uglies.” Some of those were.. Well, crimes against engineering.
I think I remember reading about them in the Vector Prime books, right? Like a combo TIE-X-Wing that was used in Lando’s race track.
@@felicitys3621 that was *a* variant, though the one people tend to think of most as a crime against engineering was the "DIE-Wing": A Y-Wing with the large engines replaced by a TIE's solar panels, because why not slap that together out of spare parts instead of putting extra engines on a TIE cockpit?
@@nicholasfarrell5981 No. The TYE-Wing (known to opposing pilots as DIE-Wings), actually were worse they took the nacelles from a Y-Wing and mated them to the side of a TIE Fighter Cockpit. The resulting craft basically had the weaknesses of both the Y-Wing and the TIE Fighter making it really a subpar fighter. You are thinking of the Y-TIE which is a better better as it retained the shields of the Y-Wing and sported quad TIE Fighter Laser Cannons with two of them replacing the Ion Cannon Turret on top of the cockpit. It also sported the Ion Engines of the TIE Fighter as well.
That said. There in fact some very interesting Ugly Fighter Variants out there. Like the Chir'daki which is a set of s-foils from an X-Wing mated to a rotating collar on the back of a TIE Cockpit ball. The resulting fighter was a Fast and maneuverable fighter sporting quad laser cannons along with a Hyperdrive. Then there is the Clutch which took the basic Cockpit Ball of a TIE and mated three fins to it. Kind of like the TIE Phantom just not typical TIE panel wings. It even sported shields and an Ion Cannon on the top fin. A RPG Tabletop Game a friend was playing once sported the Z-Wing which was the Body of a Z-95 Headhunter with the S-Foils of an X-Wing mated to it. That fighter was an interesting design.
I'm personally a fan of the TIE-clutch, which is basically just a regular TIE cockpit ball with three sets of collector panels/wings and (I think) some uprated guns.
They may even have thrown a shield generator in there to even further fly in the face of the Tarkin Doctrine.
@Robert Drexel okay, thanks; I always get those two mixed up. Also, wasn't the Chir'daki the one that the Twi'leks used in the X-Wing novels?
2:24 I’m surprised that you didn’t mention the fact that Drone’s armour is actually better than the TIE Interceptor’s armour
That's still not that good.
@@demi-femme4821 yeah. I just find it funny how they apparently value the non-piloted versions over the manned ones.
A good pilot is way harder to come by than a good machine
Drone ships by matter of corse tend to be better then piloted ships because of the lack of need for all the stuff that keeps the piglet alive.
You're not giving the Raptor enough credit; it doesn't just look silly, but it violates the logic of starship design. It has 4 cannons, 2 missile launchers, is more maneuverable and can even mount a hyperdrive and sometimes shields while being smaller than an A-Wing. It makes every other ship design that came after stupid for not using the similar ultralight, ultracompact components to create pocket-sized death-machines.
I guess I'll give those flying coffins that.
The smaller tech required to fit inside such a limited space would probably have been much more expensive to produce than standard starfighter parts, and probably harder to maintenance as well. Like the difference between a desktop PC and a compact laptop.
Its conodicaly almost the same lenth as a normal TIE/ln. The design has a bigger ball in that one bad drawing we have of it beacuse its from Cracken's Threat Dossier. I think the fanart picture of it that Geet showed makes more sense.
The tie tanks were meant to use cheap mass produced materials, with the pilots being washouts from the fighter schools.
So they were using spare parts laying around, and finding a use for the washouts (they were already familiar with the controls, so easier to get them into the tanks)
Also anyone who’s used the tie mauler in Empire at war knows just how silly these things are. They can crush infantry which can’t escape due to its speed, and self destruct dealing insane damage.
Impractical but fun in swarms
Yep, the Tie tanks are essentially the technicals of the Star Wars Universe.
The TiE Raptor is probably the most terrifying one, replace the organic with a drone, you could carry thousands of them just completely overwhelming the opposition. But that actually makes sense 🤣🤣
except that droid pilots have proven to be inherently inferior to organics in SW countless times. That was part of the reason for the poor performance of the TIE Droid.
Basically droid Tri-fighters.
It's more terrifying trying to pilot one, it's basically a flying coffin
@@w1ndgeneral226 It's essentially like a sub-par variant of the Ball from the Gundam universe....except that the Ball was actually decent, and in the hands of a skilled pilot it was absolutely capable of taking out an enemy mobile suit by itself. Even more than that, they were very, *VERY* cheap and easy to both produce and maintain in large numbers and they could even be quickly and easily retrofitted out of non-combat space pods if need be. Though I'd argue that the Ball is a better overall design, as it's decently mobile when it needs to be, has some hefty firepower with it's top-mounted 180mm Low-Recoil Cannon, and it also has two manipulator arms mounted to the bottom that can be used in very clever ways (for instance, Shiro Amada grabbed a chunk of debris from a destroyed warship's hull to use as an impromptu shield while engaged in one-on-one combat with a Zaku R-4). And yet the Ball still was given the nickname of the "Floating Coffin".
The TIE Crawler was the weirdest. I mean it's literally a tank with the TIE fighter ball cockpit. I know it probably doesn't count but I really think it should
That mf literally has two big blind spots, and they TRACKS no less
The first tank in the world slapped at the very least a machine gun on the sides, the empire literally has no excuse for this
@@choreani and the armor isn't even good enough. Wasn't even good enough to compete with most Rebel tanks. The TIE Crawler may as well be made of paper mache. And the design just feels sarcastic and lazy. I mean, what did they do, take this ball cockpit and slap tank treads on the sides?
@Prince Of Pokemon it's actually pretty durable, starfighters, even TIEs tend to be built better than most ground vehicles, going by how WEG scaled their vehicles. AND THE crawler had reinforcement added inside and out.
According to what i heard the Crawler only existed because Sienar really wanted to sell a bunch of spare TIE cockpits that they made and were collecting dust after Endor.
Agreed.
Some of those are the result of Raith Sienar getting drunk or coming up with stuff for fun... And then some jackass in the Navy actually wanted them into production, and Raith Sienar being also a businessman he did it.
Then there's Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin's obsession with specialized craft, what with his Project Obsidian whimsies.
@Michael Andrei Palon Zaarin just gave Sienar all the spice he needed.
Some of the tie experimentals were actually quite capable and probably capable of more than a regular tie.
Yeah, i remember those from the X-wing alliance game and they were pretty dangerous, specially the m3 and m4s
@@Ptaaruonn same. And they eventually did lead to the tie advanced and defender.
The TIE Scout is an insult to its name, slow, hard to maneuver, and joke of a power does not make for a good scout aka stealthy reconnaissance.
The CIVILIAN model is actually a massive improvement.
Good video, the ONLY reason I would Ever utilize the TIE Scout is for fleet hyperspace jumps (like in EAW)
It's not an official variant but I still think the cobbled together "TYE Wing" deserves mention. One of the more common "uglies" from Legends, they are made from the body of a TIE with the engines of a Y-wing. It featured the firepower and durability of a TIE fighter combined with the speed and maneuverability of a Y-wing; unsurprisingly it was also referred to as a the Die-wing.😅
Also known as the WHY-Wing ^^
To be honest the TIE D could work from a strategic POV. When pilots are rare to come by and all you have is mass producability and swarm tactics, the TIE D starts to look more attractive
Especially when you consider that "pilot training" would take about as long as a software update. You could almost deploy them as fast as you can produce them.
@@justindunlap1235 Almost.
@@justindunlap1235 That's actually what was happening. The Dark Empire was using the World Devastators, giant mobile factories that consumed a planet's resources and converted it to both making the Devastator larger as well as building new material for the war effort. The World Devastators were actively pumping out TIE Droids built from the very materials they were collecting, meaning that even if you destroyed every escort a Devastator had it could just rebuild them soon.
And you can still use your existing TIE pilots where they would make the biggest impact.
@@ReisskIaue True.
"The TIE Bizarro was an excellent concept and idea. When it was introduced as an RPG ship, our squadron was equipped with four of them, and I had the privilege to pilot one until I had the opportunity to switch to a TIE Scimitar.
The turbo laser was a powerful asset, giving a substantial attack boost to a squadron of TIE fighters. A single hit was all it took to take down an A-Wing and even obliterate the reinforced shields of an X-Wing, which typically withstand six double hits.
The original TIE Fighters, as you may know, were not equipped with landing systems. The TIE Bizarro, however, was ingeniously designed to dock using the same landing clamps as a standard TIE Fighter. This facilitated the formation of an attack squadron comprised of 8 TIE Fighters and 4 Bizarros, as opposed to 12 TIE Fighters requiring support from TIE Bombers and their torpedo payload. This change represented an efficient and effective evolution in our combat tactics."
I think Palpatine sought to get some simple pleasures out of seeing people’s reactions to any outrageous and impractical TIE series vehicles on the table, hence why any of them exist.
He was def drunk when designing these
@@thecakeisalie3981 I dont think he designed any of them himself lol. Maybe the drone?
Not gonna lie. I love it when I see Geetsly’s or Ecks use screenshots of those old (now cringeworthy) 3D models I made back in Junior High. Just makes me smile thinking back on them.
In fairness the TIE-D came out well over a decade before the Prequel movies did so at the time it was rather cool! And in universe they were pretty dangerous - we see them in swarms taking out tons of far more advanced fighters that the New Republic fielded against them.
In universe World Devastators could just suck up debris from destroyed craft and debris, fabricate and deploy it out as TIE-D's mid battle as reinforcements so they could literally be forged in a fight!
The only thing I'll defend is the idea to make TIEs drone fighters, given how cheaply quickly they could be made and the fact that they didn't have shields, they were more suited to the role of a B1 in a sense, just throw it at the enemy and overwhelm them with numbers. Why waste the lives of perfectly good soldiers who could be used for other tasks by having them pilot these flimsy things when you could have made them drones. The Empire may have taken some inspiration from the Vulture Droid with the TIEs, attempting to combat them, but they didn't take the most effective part, the Droid aspect.
And thet were litterally churned out by World Devastators, Babby's first Von Neumann Probe.
Do forget about the horrific junk fighters that became common after the Battle of Endor, and the innumerable junk fighters that were made out of Tie Fighters parts.
As silly as the TIE Raptor looks, it could dish out some punishment, considering its armament. Though imo, the TIE Hunter would be my TIE of choice. Having almost as much ordinance as a Y-Wing with the speed (and S-Foils) like an X-Wing? Pretty deadly, I'd say.
The lack of shields and the inability to use the speed and firepower at the same time are both pretty glaring issues with the TIE Hunter. In terms of perfection, you simply can't beat the TIE Avenger and Defender.
@Grand Admiral Zaarin That's a good point. I may adore the Hunter, but I can't deny how incredible those latter two TIE craft are, man. The Defender I'm still fond of from back when I played Galactic Battlegrounds. Good times.
@@GumiNightPower you should give TIE Fighter Total Conversion a look then. It's a mod for X Wing Alliance that brings it into the modern day and it's pretty amazing.
@Grand Admiral Zaarin Will do!
I actually like the idea of several of these! Especially the TIE raptor. It would be pretty fun to do a mark two of some of the designs imagine if the scout was repurposted with the mini-turbolaser and shield? The booster could be made into a add-on perhaps with hyperdrive etc
Yeah, if they had a shield, then those flying coffins could be pretty effective.
I honestly don't think the TIE Scout looked all that bad, I actually like the way the taller wings look
“So the cockpit doesn’t roll away if the pilot land it on the ground”
I don’t know why I found that so funny but I literally Laughed out Loud!
The Empire must been doing a lot of drugs with these Tie crafts.
There was a TIE Scout upgraded version that had shields, and IIRC 2 guns. And was sold on the civilian market in the New Republic era.
Are you sure you're not thinking of the Aggressor? They kinda look similar.
Ah you're right, and it's from media somehow more obscure than empire at War these days.
If I were to fly anyone of those, it'd be the Experimental M2 BigGun, mostly due to it's firepower. Can't imagine using it in a starfighter dogfight though, it seems more like an anti-armour weapon like the Ju-87 G1 from ww2.
The M2 could aim behind itself and had sheilds. Seems better then a nomral TIE/ln at least. The M1 is pretty much what you just described lol.
Honestly, I think some of the Uglies (fighters built from scraps of other ships kit-bash style) probably had better designs than some of these.
Do you know how the Uglies are called in my language (german)?
Bastards.
They're called Bastards.
Does fit well, doesn't it?
@@dorianwiesner4477 Indeed it does.
@@PhoenyxAshe I dunno, I prefer not to rely on spittle and prayers to keep my starfighter from falling to pieces during takeoff.
My favorite and lesser know Tie is the Tie Star Cruiser. Big, Slow, and Ugly but their always a sense of Dread seeing them slowly lumber through the battlefield because you know it can whip out your army in one shot. Many times one of these ship turn the tides of a battle for me in Star Wars Galactic Battleground. Haven't seen anyone talk about it even in Tie related video and I always suggested these ships.
Ty never heard of that one before!
Honestly I'd argue that the experimental ones for as dumb as they were are likely idea boards that served an additional purpose than just being a failed ship from day one
The Senate never sanctions stupidity.
Why was the TIE Defender on the thumbnail? It was better armed, shielded, and had more flexibility than any other Republic fighter of the era and it was one of the best starfighters _period._ It was as fast as an A-Wing or TIE Interceptor, it was as well shielded as an X-wing, and as well armed as a B-Wing easily. Unless its purely to draw a distinction, it seems bizarre to put it on the thumbnail for this video.
The dumb thing about all but 5 or so TIE designs is the big panels blocking the pilot's sight lines.
Not the case in the slightest. The TIE wings don't block anything. It's the ball cockpit that does. The TIE Fighter has the exact same field of vision as the Raptor
(4:55) Someone still plays "Spore"? The game of my childhood.
Anyway, I think airlock is a little overkill for creators of these "designs". I would send the men responsible to Kessel, maybe there they'd put a thought about what've gone wrong and what they'd do better.
TIE Mauler also has blowing itself up as a standard operating procedure
Missed opportunity to say "The imperials reinvented the wheel here, and they made it a rectangle."
You're right to lambast these *abominations.* I would *never* fly any of them. Instead, I'd prefer to be an ace in a TIE Interceptor.
Got click baited by the possibility of Defender slander that I would not have. Thanks thumbnail. Lmao
There were also the abominations created by pirates where the engines of a Y-Wing were grafted to the ball cockpit of a TIE Fighter to create something that was the worst of both worlds by having poor defenses and being slow and sluggish. In the X-Wing books they are most known for the speed with which they get exploded when fighting anything at all piloted by anyone remotely competent.
The Bad Piggies font on the thumbnail is a nice touch
Seems like they let their kids design some imperial fighters
There was a tie crawler Lego set. I thought it was so cool when I was little, and I still do. The wings could flip around!
The quality of video production dropped like a rock in this video.
A lot of what was being said didn't match up with the images shown,despite clearly having the images for it soon after.
Honorable mention goes to the TIE Brute. It’s essentially a TIE/LN with a turbolaser attached to its side like the Experimental M1. I don’t know if it also has standard laser cannons, but I do know that attaching a capital-ship grade weapon to a small starfighter is silly when it takes more fuel to fire, and they’re not as fast or precise enough to shoot down opposing starfighters.
"damn these rebels keep putting scrap together for their ships and defeating us with them, what if WE also banged rocks together!"
9:24 that's from an error where someone mixed feet and meters. It's SUPPOSED to be TIE Bomber length, not 3.3x thst.
The Bizarro has two whole reactors for an actually usable turbolaser.
One thing I love about these crazy ship designs, is that Lego made the TIE Crawler and the TIE-D (Drone) into sets back in 2003
Alright, since we have a BLATENT attack against the fine designers of Seinar Fleet Systems and related works. I (As an Upstanding imperial Citizen) feel the need to defend these projects as needed and important to starfighter development.
AHEM
(TIE Raptor)
The TIE Raptor actually was a pretty big improvement on the Standard TIE Design. It had more than twice as much firepower as the Standard TIE Fighter, as it carried 4 lasers and 2 missile launchers over the standard dual lasers. On top of that, the Raptor was eventually slated to be equipped with shields (As a few prototypes had been already). Development wasn't able to continue on account of the death of Warlord Zsinj. Its Also Worth Noting that the Raptor was actually as maneuverable as the A-wing Fighter, due to its streamlined solar collectors (which seem to have the same surface area as a standard TIE at close inspection.
(TIE Droid)
The TIE Droid was partially designed as a paired weapon with the World Devastator Mobile Factories. Its worth noting that the World Devastators were able to manufacture these ships by the squadron mid-planetary invasion, and send them straight from production to the battlefield. The Reason TIE/D fighters were so prevalent in Palpatine's Dark Empire is that manpower was at an all-time low. The Devastators could manufacture standard TIE's but there just weren't enough pilots. That being said, the TIE/D (While not as smart as an organic pilot, what droid fighter is?) Had the stats to match. They were faster and better armored than TIE Interceptors and it's worth noting they were competing against New Republic E-Wings. On top of that, these squadrons were also able to swarm and destroy larger capital ships like when they Destroyed a Mandator III Star Dreadnaught. Perhaps not a perfect weapon but far from a failure in design.
(TIE Recon)
What our propagandist here forgot to mention was the TIE Recon was a first-generation recon starfighter, and the precursor to the TIE Vanguard and Tie Scouts. This Recon Starfighter was used more as a last-minute checker. A Ship like a Gozanti cruiser would drop into a system, deploy the craft, then jump back into hyperspace. The fighter would then cruise about the system, using its more advanced sensors, and slightly faster engines to stay out of trouble. Eventually Re-docking with its carrier and jumping away with intel.
As the Rebellion intensified these modified TIE's were eventually developed into their own proper recon variant in the TIE Vanguard. (which you can see at 3:07)
(TIE Scout)
The TIE Scout is actually a really good craft when you think about it. It's larger yes, but that's because it was designed with long-range, long-term recon missions in mind. The Ship could have a crew of up to 3. Including a pair of pilots that allow for long flight times. It also housed its own hyperdrive (Giving it both stealth and independence from the bigger ships) It had the full suite of Comscan equipment plus rations and crew comforts needed on long-term deployments (After all a crew might be deployed for up to 6 months) The ship has cargo space reflecting that.
These ships were even sold in civilian variants designed for deep space exploration. While it was no good in a fight, if it was caught in combat its mission purpose would have failed anyway.
(TIE Mauler)
The Mauler has an interesting history. And our dear propagandist is just outright wrong about most of his information. During the rise of the Empire, the Mauler was put in place as a fast attack craft. To give a real-world equivalent, it might be analogous to an IFV more than an MBT. It has a top speed of 97 km/h (60 mp/h) given by its SFS P-s4 twin ion engines. The Mauler was designed as a rapid anti-infantry platform and was essentially a cheaply made stand-in before better-purpose tanks were manufactured. This is why it has the TIE Cockpit, as it was essentially made out of surplus TIE Parts. Their Tripple medium blasters also gave them a frightening attack power when these vehicles were massed together, able to take out even larger heavy vehicles as quickly as they shred poorly equipped insurgents. Fast, reliable, cheap, and surprisingly effective weapons platform is why they never really went away and the design would be developed into a purpose-built tank.
(Century Tank/ TIE Crawler)
Essentially a purpose-built Calvery Vehicle made from the Designs of the Successful TIE Mauler. The Century Tank is essentially the same vehicle, with the same top speed, power, and cheap parts; but these vehicles had more armor and firepower. Its light Turbolaser gives it the punching power to match some of the most heavily armed vehicles of the galactic civil war and beyond. Its long design also gave it excellent climbing capabilities for a non-repulsor lift vehicle. All in all, it's a great option if you can't afford an AT-AT to back you up.
TIE Experimental Series
I'm not going to go into detail for these ones, as their source material is extremely limited, and most of it would be repetitive. What I will say, is these crafts were all successful models, in their purpose. All of their elements went into the construction of one of the Empire's true Ultimate Weapons. The TIE Defender. Combat data and weapons trials were all used to make the defender the ultimate assault starfighter. Each Craft was useful individually, true. I could talk about the Tie Bomb flying into a hanger and exploding, the Tie Bizzaro out maneuvering X-wings and having the firepower to threaten larger ships or the TIE Warhead firing saturation rockets like a Harrier II, or the TIE Biggun blowing apart Y-wings with a single laser blast, Or the TIE Booster being faster than anything else flying. But all of that would never be seen even if the project hadn't been interrupted by rebels, it already did what it was supposed to do.
Anyway- So I figured I'd play devil's advocate to Geetsly's here. I got all my info from Wookiepedia, feel free to check the facts there (using legends sources because a lot of them don't even have cannon counterparts). I actually learned something new from this, and that was that the TIE Experimental project actually lead to the TIE Defender. Which is pretty neat, as I always felt like they were really cool. I also have a soft spot for quite a few of these ships and tanks. Just a disclaimer this isn't anti-Geetly's hate. I quite enjoyed the video, even if I don't agree with his interpretation. Anyway, cheers, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
One thing to remember is that TIE fighters never actually landed on the ground. TIE fighters were always launched from special racks in the hangar bay. This is something that Disney grossly overlooked/ignored and drives me crazy every time I see a TIE fighter "land" on the ground
im so into how this channel will not break the 4th wall as in the imperial engineers were idiots and not the design team on a given project was on weed
I see your farming those rage clicks with the TIE Defender in the thumbnail.
The stupid TIE variants all hold a special place in my heart BECAUSE of how stupid they are. They are peak ridiculous Legends.
"experimental" another word for prototype.... someone doesn't know anything about manufacturing or RnD, most things look stupid like these ships before the ideas are refined
Officer: “proudly presents tie bizarro designs to me”
Me: are you alright in the head?
If I HAD to pilot one of these it would be the kamikaze bomb. I know, it's pilotless, but I'd rather be blown to bits by a proton torpedo than be seen in an M1
Heyyyy! Don’t bully the TIE Crawler, I wanted that to add to my Star Wars Lego sets when I was a kid.
"So, what if we made a Tie Fighter...but worse and it looks like a child made it."
"I'll take those blueprints for a million credits."
I remember the TIE/D actually coming in a LEGO set of 4 TIE's. 2 standard and an Interceptor came with it as well.
That was where I first saw it also.
I have that. It think it called “TIE Fighter Collection”. It had two standard TIE, Darth Vader’s TIE Advance, and a Droid TIE, making it the first lego Star Wars set to feature a vehicle from the Expanded Universe.
Can Confirm: that video was a violation of the Yavin Convention.
The fun thing about Tie Mauler is, because it was drived on chains and are fast, the pilots can just mow over infantry. it is still bad, because it need one shot from a rocket launcher or a laser cannon from a T2B to destroy it, but at least, it had a terrifying effect for infantry
Oh, that last one is just so comical, I have to presume it was either the result of trying to scam people out of money, OR it was a designer who was just like "FINE, You want some new variant, I'll give you this monstrosity, then you'll understand why we haven't changed the base design..."
As soon as you mentioned that the previous ones 'were at least starfighters', I knew the tanks were coming. I freaking love the TIE Tanks, the Mauler and Crawler. They're just so goofy and scrungly. I love them.
Imagine there were a bunch of Imperial remnant warlords in the sequels and you could tell how strong their faction is based on the level of how Tie Variants look.
The better they look, the stronger the army is. The laughably bad, the weaker they are.
I don't know much about the TIE-D.... but their cockpits were always spotless!! 😂😂
TIE RC is capable of detecting ships on the far side of a system, and could scan underground structures.
It's niche, but useful.
TIE M1 is basically the Empire’s equivalent of the B-wing
Unless you were there trying to defend the Mon Calimari Cruiser Liberty against them, then you wouldn't dare call the experimental tie swarms useless. By the force I still get ptsd from sll those concussion missiles snd kamikaze ties.
Lots of really horrible designs here both in terms of function as well as aesthetics.
I do think the TIE/rc recon variant makes a lot of sense though.
They’re reusing a common, preexisting design instead of inventing a whole new spacecraft for a specialty purpose.
The TIE/rc wouldn’t be as optimized as a purpose-built new design, but there would be a lot of cost savings, crossover in the spare parts that could be used, and less training requirements. Pilots and maintenance crews who know the standard TIE fighter could cross over to the recon variant more easily.
There’s even a real world parallel to this. The F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter was used as the basis for the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jet. The internal gun was removed and weapon stations were replaced with equipment to detect and jam radar systems.
The only good thing about the tie muller is that it was a great infantry killer in the star wars empire at war game
"It's appearance was an absolute crime against humanity."
To be fair those are the guys who didn't mind blowing up entire planets.
2:12 to be fair, I think the TIE/D was designed before the prequels came out
By over a decade in fact
Unpopular opinion, I actually like the Tie experimental M1 a lot.
Bizzaro is the best. TIE Brute of newcanon is a cheap knockoff.
I liked the Tie Scout. Most of the others I get, but I liked the scout. Like a small car home when you go camping. Plus I could see the upper part as housing the hyperdrive possibly. I think it was okay, though why the Empire would have more then a ISD2 Hangars full of them… I would not understand.
The fact that the Empire chose to discontinue the clone trooper program and instead fund these ridiculous projects is a testament to why it only lasted a generation.
The M-1 is what you get when you spent the night before a deadline drinking and only have joke concepts to turn in
There is one good reason I can think of for removing the standard laser cannons from the cockpits of the M-1 and M-2. With the upgraded weapons they may not have had a large enough power plant to support the standard weapons as well, so they removed them in favor of dedicating as much power to the larger weapons as possible.
No excuse for removing them from the M-3 though.
OUI, THE TIE CRAWLER IS PRECIOUS they made a lego set about it 😞
There is one other justification for most of these ships being tie based interchangeable parts.
A couple of defences:
- The idea of the TIE Scout, I think, was that it should be fitted with a tiny Master hyperdrive, similar to those of cruiser class ships, so that it wouldn't leave any theoretically traceable logs in the hyperspace lane systems, that smaller conventional craft would use to travel by. Hence, the massive hump on it's back.
- The M3 was just mobile artillery, designed off a TIE due to the cost-efficiency of those blueprints. Maybe it could've had a single turret for defence, but it wasn't really supposed to be in the thick of battle, just creep along the outskirts, and snipe a quick big hit, before returning to their hangar to reload. It didn't need dogfight lasers.
- The TIE Bizarro doesn't land, it either gets guaranteed destroyed in any engagement that would welcome a fast mobile turbolaser, or provide ineffective supporting fire, area denial in squads, far enough away from combat, to return to hang in tractor suspension, like the Milenium Falcon hung beneath the frigate in the closing scene of ESB.
So the questions are. What species hated humans more than any other race? How did they get a job doing design work for Santhe/Seinar Technologies?
7:30 I think this could have a reasonable use, mainly as a starship killer where it would be based at a small imperial base that lacked any local star destroyer cover. It's use would likely be to intercept and unload missiles into hostile starships for quick destruction before fighters could be deployed.
It just reminds me of some WWII aircraft that were designed to launch really quick to intercept bombers, make a couple strafing passes and then return. Given that reason, the removal of it's standard weaponry could make some sense, where it would have been to reduce weight as it wouldn't be expected to have a long drawn out fight, but a quick strafe or two of a much bigger ship before returning
Bruh not understanding that something like a TIE/SR needs to be basically a space mobilehome for the pilot on extended missions
As a True fan, I knew all of these.
You may bow.
I love how you used the Star Wars: Battlefront Cover Art for the opening of this video :)
TIE Maulers may be utterly ridiculous, but squishing Rebel troopers with them in Empire at War never gets old. Empire at War is probably also why I have a soft spot for the TIE Scout. It may look silly, but it is so very, very useful in-game.
I think if the TIE Experimental M-3 kept the wingtip lasers of the proper TIE Interceptor as well as the rocket launchers, it might be a halfway decent fighter
People trash the TIE Crawler, but you gotta admit that the Lego set’s box art made it look awesome
Well yeah and even the LEGO set itself looks awesome, but LEGO can do that with any ship/vehicle.
I mean I even think that the TIE Crawler looks cool regardless. Is it a stupid idea that makes no sense? Absolutely. But it's literally a TIE Fighter but instead of wings it has tank treads! What's not cool about that?
Well let's be honest, it's cooler than the TIE Raptor.
"Whichever Imperial bureaucrat signed off on this should have been thrown out an airlock"
Given that it was probably Palpatine, I wholeheartedly agree. :P
One tie wing between two cockpit balls
-Geetsly 2023
The fact that the tae scout has no shields despite having a shape that's way more shootable is very much a crime against starfighter design
The only reason I can see the original lasers removed from the ones with the wing mounted ones is maybe it wouldn't have the energy to run both. But that doesn't exactly work for the concussion missile one since missiles don't tend to require a ton of energy that isn't stored inside the missile. And you'd think they'd just be able to swap from big guns to smaller ones and redirect the reactor's energy
your intro gives me such nostalgia kicks i love it
Respect for the Tie Scout! It could at least hold a fresher
The TIE crawler kicks ass. Fight me.
empire at war fan .