Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the monthly series where we take a close look at the elements that make up the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ to help you build a more accurate ‘outer persona’!
In this installment, we’re focusing on the little doodads that everyone seems to have on their vests and jackets nowadays. Official sources can’t agree on what they are—the Complete Visual Dictionary refers to them as a ‘rank plaque’, ‘rank insignia’, ‘communications badge’, or ‘command insignia’, while I believe the RougeOne reference guide calls them ‘personal transponders’, so who knows? Despite not appearing in the original Star Wars ’77, these devices have gained in popularity (especially among the ‘Batuu-bounding’ crowd) after frequent inclusion in many post-Disney materials. Since 9 times out of 10 they’re worn by Rebel Alliance characters, we didn’t see Any in the Prequel era (I could be wrong, though; leave a comment below if you know otherwise!)
Only two styles of badge are seen in Episode V. These use easily-castable or vacuformable shapes and components with brightly colored buttons. The first (we’ll call it Hoth #1) is worn by our three lead characters and the hangar technicians, suggesting they are transponders and not related to rank.
While the world may presently find itself in the grip of a pandemic, one silver lining does exist. While it can be stressful in other ways, a month-long quarantine lockdown has the unexpected benefit of suddenly giving crafty-minded folks a lot of time with which to finish ‘backburner’ projects, and so—as several of my other WIP projects are currently stalled due to quarantine-created supply-bottlenecks—I thought I would share one item I have been able to finish up during the current situation.
Too often, Star Wars prop collectors fixate on weapons, armor, and vehicles. But we—who are engaged in Star Wars living history—know there’s more to life in the Galaxy Far, Far Away than fighting: there’s also…DRINKING! 
Disney decided to market this item as Yoda’s illuminator, but it would be more accurately called ‘Luke’s flashlight’, and we can assume that Luke brought his to Dagobah as part of standard-issue Rebel survival gear. While maybe not recognizable to the casual fan, once you know the scene, the item springs to mind pretty easily.
While I try to avoid association with the post-Disney canon, I feel like 
Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy 