I covered some of it in one of my videos, including how I thought I had a fake way back when:
Here's a shot of the Gen 1 (1985) vs Collectors (2009)
The basic jist is that Gen 1 debuted in 1985. These were made in Japan and had a Serilium compound for the frame. They had a silky feel to them, but were a bit stiff (yet durable). They had metal hinges, a silk screened logo, and the name inside was all lower case: "frogskins"
Gen 2 as best as I can figured was around 1990. Many of the catalogs still had old stock photos with the metal hinge, but any new colorways would be updated. This moved to a hinge similar to the modern ones where the stem clasps around a point on the orbital. The logo changed to a capital F: "Frogskins" and the material was often the O Matter used in the M Frames at the time. The logo was raised and painted.
The New Frogskin took over in 1996 and the original in all its forms was discontinued. This is fairly distinct and has more issues being mistaken with a Ten or Five.
There was a period around 2004 when that went away and then in 2009 the Collector Frogskins appeared. First with two waves of Supreme Frogskins. The first being the White City and a few solid colors, then a Gold and Silver chrome pairing. After that, Frogskins were released one colorway per month for a while, and certain very limited exclusives were released to internal functions (like the Valentines). They kept the plastic hinge, but the axis point on the orbitals where the stem connects seems to be more tapered for strength. The logo remained the same, but the inner name reverted back to the all lower case "frogskins".
I still use the term Collectors Frogskins, and I've branched that out to any other classic design that's brought back like the Kith RazorBlade, Palace Mumbo, E/T/Square Wires, etc... but Oakley doesn't use that terminology. They have the benefit of not having to differential between new and old since they only sell one at a given time, and the current market is all that is relevant. Some also call it Gen 3, so it varies from person to person. There's no 'right' term, so there's no wrong, but I've tried to at least be consistent here if anything.
Sorry for no detailed photos, I tried to scour my flickr account, but I'm at work 99% of my life and don't have direct access to my collection at the moment.
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