I think it's just a result of how WalMart does business.  They're not paying their employees a lot.  And they almost bully the workers in order to keep them from unionizing.  The end result is employees who really don't care a lot about a job that's barely paying them enough to subsist on.  So if that means putting out some product a week or two early and displeasing us fanboys...so be it. 

As for WalMart's corporate management?  They've succeeded so much in bullying their suppliers that it seems unlikely that any kind of protest from Hasbro about breaking the street date would go nowhere.

Brent speaks the truth.  Certain teams have just been favored in the Sports Picks line.  They tend to be the major market teams in the NFL, MLB and NBA lines. 

And certain players have been done quite a bit.  Witness Ladainian Tomlinson being up to his 6th sports pick figure.

Oh drat!  The same image/scan is in a post from 2004?  So unfair.

On 7/26? Anyone?

The checklist on the 16th should tell all.

Here's my 10:

1 - Indy in suit (campus chase)
2 - KGB Agent
3 - Akator alien
4 - Dean Charles Stanforth
5 - Harold Oxley
6 - George "Mac" McHale
7 - Marion Ravenwood
8 - Dovchenko in US Army disguise
9 - Alien remains in Hangar 51 case
10 - Russian Soldier in US Army disguise

Weird.  But I think it does give it some more play value.

I've said similar things in the past in several discussions regarding the lighting, Anton.  My own credentials stem from working as a video shader in the television industry, which involves controlling the video signal levels of cameras that are part of a production.  Film lighting tends to be much more intense than television lighting, and I wouldn't be surprised if the primary lighting source shining down on the Death Star Trooper in that scene is a focused 2 K fresnel.  That's some serious lighting power.

I agree with Anton here.  It looks like there's a very strong lighting source directly above and behind the trooper manning that station.  And the shot from the vintage card has that same light washing down from above, mainly on the helmet, shoulders and arms.  Plus the cardback shot has an additional lighting source which is lighting up the DST's chest and face.  That light was probably part of the set piece.

I honestly think that given the lighting conditions involved we cannot make a definitive statement about the uniform color.  Lighting that strong will wash out any color, including black.  We would only have valid source material from the movie if said trooper had been lit similary to Tarkin and had dialogue or was featured as an active part of the scene.  Other valid source material would be a costume documentation photo of this specific actor.