The first generation PMags were only available for about a year as there was only a single mold (hence the window blank space in the non window mold).

The first gen were designed to confirm large scale fielding prior to opening up multiple production molds and as such the following MRev magazines quickly made the limited production Gen1s inefficient to continue to run in production.

Apart from the very initial run in 2007 (that had some warping issues post manufacturing and were almost all replaced immediately) the Gen 1's saw extensive combat deployment in Iraqi and Afghanistan in 2007-2008. We still have some here that are going strong almost a decade later although they do not get shot as much as they use to due to us always testing new mags now.

The current PMags are far stronger but when the Gen 1 was first released it was pretty much in a league of it's own (see the original PMag video below) and was instrumental in acceptance of polymer magazines for combat operations.

The original, impromptu, Drake and a truck-Unscentific magazine test (or how I learned to stop worrying and love a polymer magazine), posted 8 years ago on youtube in 240p (youtube's max resolution of the time)