The closest pre-TFA analogue to the TFA lightsaber I know of is the cutaway lightsaber used in the DK Visual Encyclopedia for the OT. There, the lightsaber has the ESB grips, but the ANH glass eye piece:
http://cinebloggando.altervista.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/spaccato.jpg
I, like many others on here, am constantly changing my opinion about which version I like the most. I am gonna have to agree with CT1138 here for the purposes of my comment. I like the grips from Empire, but I like the stock glass eye from IV. As for the clamp card, I like the simplicity of the bubbles, but can't imagine the ESB/TFA grips without a circuit card.
Is it weird that I actually prefer how the ANH version does not have "G R A F L E X" covered up on the clamp? It sort of blurs the line between prop and in-universe saber, and I think that makes it more interesting. I guess as a person who is not only obsessed with the stories within the films, but also with the stories surrounding the making of the films, the ANH hilt best represents the fact that those movies, and particularity that film, were literally cobbled together in the most genus of ways. I think Roy had it right when he said that using the flash handle was a brilliant epiphany.
Also my favorite version from ESB is the Degobah version where it is missing one of the buttons for whatever reason. I guess I like it for the same reason I like the ANH. I like the junky versions over the idealized hero props.
I don't know if Disney will every explain why there are different versions, or if we are just supposed to accept that these props are just representations of the same hilt in the canon, but at the end of the day as long as the hilt is a Graflex, I am happy.
I ordered a Roman's Graflex and a Graflex Shop Graflex as well as a TFA and an ANH kit from Roy. Now to determine which one to convert into which version...