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Boy, did they make the changes. :-) Or rather, 'why did they make such minor changes?' Compared to the originals. (Read about them here.) There aren't actually all that many things altered. The copystamp, of-course. :-) Like all reissues, instead of reading Japan, the reissues all read China. The color is *slightly* different (the shades of purple and yellow are tinted differently). And as an interesting token, this set comes with soft pink rubber squares, intended to represent 'energon cubes'. Go on, put one in your mouth and chew it...it's soft rubbery delicious!
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Oddly, they made a change to his head-antenna again. Now, only one indented wedge (on the bottom) remains. The other one has been molded into the antenna stalk itself, perhaps as a move to strengthen it. In-addition, the back of the legs have a reinforcement tab on the inside. The gun has a line on it. And the wings are the one-indent version. (Interestingly, they went with the original sharp version in the wing design, versus the rounded-ball one we see in the G1 series. Not bad.)
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No wings on the gun, and a standard (not scooped) stinger. And the unit *has* the rubsign indent, as well as the larger front wheelhubs. In-essense, it borrows elements from both versions of the original toy. This reinforces the concept that the molding of this one was borrowed off the later-issue transitional version. They updated the stinger transformation; the unit has a two-step ratcheting placement, whereas the originals simply relied on friction and gravity to hold the in-place. One item of interest: apparently, the smooth inner-legs have been replaced with a stepped-tab system, allowing the legs to 'snap' into place when in insect mode.
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No prongs on the gun. And the unit has the rubsign indent, which places it firmly in one style of original variant. One interesting change; the wheels, originally having a hub that pushed them out farther from the ael-housing, are now smooth and flat, allowing the wheel flush with the rest of the armature. Another neat addition is the spring-loaded waist pivot; the action on the reissue is much smoother than the original, which appears to operate only on a rounded-notch system. Also of note is the fact that the upper legs (where they attach to the lower waist) have deeper screw-indents than the original.
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Note: The E-Hobby exclusive reissue, colored to represent the Insector Robo giftset from Pre-TF times. ;-) You know, it's a toss-up for me; on the one hand, I suppoose I can see why certain kinds of recolors (red Tracks, silver Skids) would be popular. But I gotta say...I don't really see the point of a recolor comemorating the Pre-TF insecticons. They jsut don't seem worth it. But hey, if it's a Transformer, we'll all buy it, I'm sure. :-)
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