Probably just to sell toys.
I'm no Starwars expert, but I have read a bit about it, and apparently the Y-Wing is a very old ship compared to the other ships in the Rebel Fleet.
They are slow and weak. Not something Luke Skywalker would fly.
One of the nerdiest things I have ever written :(
I'm with ya pal!
Y-Wings I think were resilient though (I think), and in the video games they perform a "bomber/fighter" role. And they had ion cannons to disable big ships.
Darths and Droids got me to read up on some of the Star Wars wikis. It's kind of insane how many little epics have been written about what happened after ROTJ... Grand Admiral Thrawn - and to some extent, even the stuff with those weird bio-aliens - was only the start of it.
Yes, that's right I forgot, they do sometimes act as bombers.
I remember playing Tie Fighter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_TIE_Fighter
when I was younger. It was an amazing game (at the time).
Y-Wings were always easy to kill because they were so slow and unmaneuverable, unlike the X-Wing and A-Wings.
I'm amazed at all the stuff that has happened after ROTJ too, there are so many books and games that further the story. Sometimes I just get lost in Wookiepedia reading about all the happenings (I was a big Starwars fan when I was younger, still am to an extent).
There is much more to Star Wars than the average cinema-goer realises.
Shame George Lucas screwed up the series with his silly prequels.
Yeah, the "Expanded Universe" is kind of nuts.
There are some downsides for old fanboys like me; it kind of reduces the importance of the events in the original trilogy from a "historical" point of view. (Even more so when the prequels rip so many lines in "homage" - retroactively, now the Trilogy "red squadron" is just going through the pattern of "lock s-foils in attack position" etc)
And my inner 12 year old is kind of irritated that now the Trilogy is "really" about the redemption and death of Darth Vader, not the growth and final achievement of Luke and the Rebellion.