It's not the different coloured pockets variant as far as I can see, and is the later one with the laser, rather than the stem gun, so by my reckoning this is the most common variant of these . Yet:
David! I must insist that you got straight to the archive's and swot up!
It's rather simple:-
Earliest release had a silver machine gun, and an Uzi
Later release had a blue laser gun, and an Uzi (presumably a machine gun was not thought to be Space enough, but bizarrely an Uzi was)
But then there were some (lovely, lovely) variants that had yellow painted highlights on the legs and the leg pockets painted too. Now that is the rare one, and I could understand going for more money, as I'd be bidding on it too.
Honestly Dave - I think you've inhaled too much dust in all of your rummaging about - it's clouded over your brain!
And as for Jaye and the incredibly rare diagonal in the bubble variant - I used to have one of those. Unfortunately I shook it one day and now it's just a boring normal one.
Alte Volat
"BFTB Elite??? Moi??? Ooooooo, Missus - Titter ye not!"
I'm enjoying all Dave's photos as well - there's a nice "uniform" quality to them
On touching the trig point, I found my thrill
To the east Brokeback Mountain, to the west, Benny Hill
I'll give you the grid ref, you might like to go
SO224350