RE: your news nuggets on the front page about the Reb and Imp symbols.
Hasbro actually addressed this in the Insider #76 Toy Box column.
They said they simplified it for kids by switching the RED to bad guys, like Vader's saber, and the BLUE to good guys like Obi-Wan's/Luke/Anakin's saber.
I don't have it in front of me, but I can type it up later.
In fact, it was pretty amusing, the whole column was a "here's why we did this" to answer collector comments on:
- The sandcrawler getting dropped by Target after they reported in in Insider #75
- the symbol color switch/swap and why
- the slight change to safety text on the vintage repro cards (can't duplicate old card fronts exactly due to changes in safety codes/laws)
and a few other things I can't quite remember off hand... dang work is distracting me