Melatius - the pantyhose over the lens was indeed used in the Tunisia footage - it's an old trick; I've used it myself in place of a diffusion filter. It's most evidenced by the prismatic specular highlights coming off Threepio in direct sunlight shots. However, this isn't what causes those blobs, the origins of which I'm not 100% sure, but it's got to be a combination of the nature of the film stock, and I'm pretty sure some intentional generational degradation - something else we know for a fact was done to help some of the worst shots blend more contiguously with bracketing better shots.

Eyeshot - It's cool, right? For me too, just like everyone else. :)