When I opened up my new frontloader to clean, I noticed something. The controller ports are molded around the outside of the sockets, so that you cannot remove the ports from the socket without de-soldering the wire. On my other NES, the controller ports hang loose inside the system when I open it up, independent from the socket.
Sorry for the confusing description. I'm just curious if anyone knows anything about this, and if there are any other differences.
<EDIT> I can take pics of the first one when I get back to my apartment. As for the 2nd, maybe over the weekend.