SilverWook said:

Another neat little detail I only now noticed, there's a long rifle style blaster strapped to the speeder, similar to what Luke had in the first film. It's only visible in the closeup, so the wide shot must be a different point in the story.

I was just about to point this out.

I don't know why I feel the need to defend the droid but I am pretty sure that it has similar compartments on the ball that other R2 units have. Meaning it is not less practical than say R2D2. I'm sure it can do all the stuff that R2D2 does (except maybe flying..) but is also faster when it comes to moving around.

I wish an official explanation about how the crossguard works would come soon so I can stop worrying about it.

Re: Stormtrooper boots. IIRC the OT stormtrooper boots were just regular Chelsea styled boots that were painted white. I assume the new ones are bit more "designed" than those.