New colored trooper head? Variant?

[Zon]

Hey all - long time lurker, first time poster! Love the site, and I check it daily!

Now, on to the topic.

I've bought six of the 9492 TIE Fighter sets, but much to my surprise today I noticed something different about the TIE Pilot's head. The previous five all have the same pale face (on the right), but this one looks like he's been out in the sun a bit (on the left).



Think they are going to start moving the pale faces out of production? Or is this a misprint or variant?

[Draykov]

Any other differences between the two figs? Look for indentations on the inside of the arms on the fig with the darker face. Be careful though, if you remove the arm completely from the torso, as you want to avoid cracking the base of the torso. Also see if you spot numbers printed on the "wrists" of the minifig hands (it would be noticeable because the hands wouldn't rotate as smoothly as usual when plugged into the arm).

[Zon]

Any other differences between the two figs? Look for indentations on the inside of the arms on the fig with the darker face. Be careful though, if you remove the arm completely from the torso, as you want to avoid cracking the base of the torso. Also see if you spot numbers printed on the "wrists" of the minifig hands (it would be noticeable because the hands wouldn't rotate as smoothly as usual when plugged into the arm).

I do not see any other differences - no numbers on the wrists either. What do the numbers on the wrists mean btw?

In terms of the whole set, the only other difference I could find was that two of the somewhat bigger pieces that were previously packed in the bags were loose in the box, making me think this is a revision to the set. Still not sure if the face is misprint or not. Haven't seen another like it yet.

This set came from Amazon.com, in case anyone was wondering.

[Draykov]

The traits I described are typical of figures with parts manufactured in China. Those figs tend to be a bit less in quality compared to figs available in traditional sets. So far, those figs with Chinese parts (the arms with indentations and serial numbers, hands with serial numbers on the wrist) have been limited to the Collectible Minifigure series as well as certain "battle-pack" type figure sets released for original themes (like this one). So, I'm happy to hear those traits aren't showing up yet in regular sets (with the exception of certain Toy Story and Superheroes sets).

It could be a variation in printing...maybe one fig had his face printed at a different facility...but that would still be a bit strange, given LEGO's attempts to standardize everything. Not sure what the deal is.

[Mofo Jones]

Maybe the one on the left is a Jango clone?

[Zon]

So, anyone seen another one of these yet? Amazon hasn't had another sale on the TIE Fighter since I got this, so I haven't gotten anymore. I haven't seen another on the internet yet either.

If this is a misprint, does anyone think it will carry any value?

[daevster]

I recently bought the Death Star Planet set and the Droid Escape set and noticed that the sandtroopers had the "pale" face, but the pilot had the "sun-burned" face. I later bought the Endor battle pack, and both the stormtrooper and scout trooper had the "pale" face. I assumed it was most likely a misprint only on my pilot figure, but apparently it has appeared elsewhere.

Those pilots must love the sun...

[CaptainFordo]

The traits I described are typical of figures with parts manufactured in China. Those figs tend to be a bit less in quality compared to figs available in traditional sets. So far, those figs with Chinese parts (the arms with indentations and serial numbers, hands with serial numbers on the wrist) have been limited to the Collectible Minifigure series as well as certain "battle-pack" type figure sets released for original themes (like this one). So, I'm happy to hear those traits aren't showing up yet in regular sets (with the exception of certain Toy Story and Superheroes sets).

It could be a variation in printing...maybe one fig had his face printed at a different facility...but that would still be a bit strange, given LEGO's attempts to standardize everything. Not sure what the deal is.

Which superheroes sets might I ask? =/

[Draykov]

Which superheroes sets might I ask? =/

I can't say first-hand, because I don't own any myself (yet), so take anything I say about it with a grain of salt when it comes to this theme in particular, but I want to say Wonder Woman's legs in 6862? I'm pretty sure I saw someone comment on that in these forums, but it doesn't appear to be mentioned in the review.

[Zon]

I recently bought the Death Star Planet set and the Droid Escape set and noticed that the sandtroopers had the "pale" face, but the pilot had the "sun-burned" face. I later bought the Endor battle pack, and both the stormtrooper and scout trooper had the "pale" face. I assumed it was most likely a misprint only on my pilot figure, but apparently it has appeared elsewhere.

Those pilots must love the sun...

Interesting - I recently bought a Death Star Planet set too, but it was a pale face. Wonder if these will have any value to them.

[bendog2008]

Personally, I think it's a variant. My TIE Pilot had the same head when I bought the TIE Fighter set. It may just be there so someone can easily distinguish what minifigs head it is for, between the Stormtrooper/Sandtrooper and the TIE Pilot. Back in 2001, when Stormtroopers had blank yellow heads under the helmet, the TIE Pilot had a blank brown head under his helmet