We've discussed the distinctions between these kits several times on the Forum. It's a rather interesting story. (My source, as usual, is Dr. Thomas Graham's excellent book, Remembering Revell Model Kits.) Revell has actually sold at least five versions of the Constitution on different scales.
The first was a tiny kit that actually was made by a company called Gowland Creations, beginning in 1952. Gowland made a series of nine little plastic sailing ships, each of them offered in two forms: with and without a two-piece plastic bottle. Gowland (which also was the original source of most of Revell's famous "Highway Pioneers" antique car kits) had some financial problems, and Revell took over the distribution of the company's kits in 1954. According to Dr. Graham, the little Constitution kit never actually appeared in a box with a Revell label on it, but he includes it in the long list of Revell kits in his book's appendix: "H-412 Frigate Constitution. 1953-55. Ivory plastic. Paper flag sheet, rope ladders printed on clear plastic sheet." He estimates its current market value at $20-25.
The next one initially appeared in 1956, and was the product of Revell's own staff. It was originally numbered H-319. There seems to be some argument over the scale of it; I've seen it referred to quite a few times as 1/196, but Dr. Graham lists it as 1/192. (The difference probably isn't significant. My guess, though, is that 1/192 is what the designers intended; 1/192 is the equivalent of 1/16"=1', which is a fairly standard ship model scale.) I think the designers worked from the set of plans that the Navy was selling at that time (in the gift shop on board the ship, among other places). Those drawings had been prepared at the time of the 1920s restoration, and showed the ship pretty much as she still appeared in 1956 - with one big exception. For some reason the Revell people decided to include a remarkably well-rendered miniature version of the Andrew Jackson figurehead. I wonder if, in that early golden age of the plastic kit, those fine artisans just wanted to demonstrate that they could do it.)
That kit created something of a sensation when it appeared on the ship modeling scene, for good reason. Its only competitors in those days were the solid-hull wood kits from companies like Marine Models and A.J. Fisher (both of whom offered Constitution kits) and Model Shipways (which had two versions of the Essex, on different scales). Modelers working from those wood kits were used to having the guns on the gundeck represented by "dummies" - stub barrels plugged into holes drilled in the hull. Revell - on a smaller scale than any of the competition - included full-length gun barrels with beatiful little carriages, which sat on shelves cast integrally with the hull halves. And the Revell kit, with a pricetag of $3.00, was cheap. (I don't remember how much those wood frigates cost in the fifties, but I think it was between $10.00 and $20.00. Maybe more.) The kit obviously was a labor of love on the part of the people who designed it, and it still holds up pretty well. Its most obvious weakness is the fact that the main hatch in the middle of the spar deck is solid. (Well, that's how it was on the wood kits, too. A competent modeler can solve that problem pretty quickly.)
I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that 1/192 (or 1/196) kit was responsible for setting the standard size of a long range of Revell sailing ship kits that appeared over the next decade or so. The Constitution was followed quickly by H.M.S. Bounty, the Santa Maria, the Flying Cloud, the U.S.C.G.C. Eagle, and H.M.S. Victory. They sold originally for $3.00 apiece, and all came in the same sized box. Eventually Revell added quite a few more kits to the "three-dollar range," as people like me thought of them. Most of them were, in my opinion, excellent kits (the exceptions being things like "H.M.S. Beagle" and the "Stag Hound," which were ludicrously inaccurate modifications of earlier kits). Those were great days in the plastic kit business. Each kit was a little better than the last. The Victory (1959) featured an open space between the forecastle and quarterdeck, through which the upper gundeck was visible.
The biggest Revell Constitution first appeared in 1965, with the kit number H-368. Dr. Graham gives its scale as 1/108, but I think it's on 1/96 - or mighty close to it. I'd have to take some measurements to be sure, but 1/96 is a standard modeling scale, and the one Revell used for its other big sailing ships, the Cutty Sark (and its clones, the Thermopylae and Pedro Nunes) and Kearsarge (and its semi-clone Alabama). It was, as we've already noted, based on the plans commissioned from George Campbell by the Smithsonian. (The original box and instruction sheet proudly announced the Smithsonian connection, and that the kit represented the ship in her 1814 configuration. In those days Revell assumed its customers cared about things like that.) Among the sources Mr. Campbell consulted was the Isaac Hull model. There is, as RedCorvette noted, scarcely any similarity between the 1/192 and 1/96-scale kits.
The new kit really represented the mid-sixties state of the art, with a full-length gundeck (and a hatch to see it through), and transparent stern windows through which the bulheads of the captain's cabin could be seen. In my personal opinion it's still one of the top ten plastic sailing ship kits. It's been reissued many times in different boxes - with and without vacformed plastic "sails" (as has the 1/192 kit). Its biggest weakness, perhaps, is that its bulwarks are too thin - an almost inevitable consequence of the injection molding process.
Next came the "simplified series" kit, in 1969. At that time the American plastic kit industry was having serious financial problems, and the manufacturers were trying all sorts of tricks to drag in new customers. This one, with a length of about 22 inches, was part of a short series advertised with the slogan "Build a Legend in a Weekend." It was a scaled-down version of the 1/96-scale kit, with such features as gun carriages cast integrally with the decks to keep the parts count low. It was originally numbered H-362; according to Dr. Graham, it was on 1/159 scale (to fit a standard box, presumably) and was in the Revell catalog through 1975.
At about the same time Monogram (this was long before the Revell-Monogram merger, of course) was testing the waters with a small series of "simplified" sailing ships of its own - including a Constitution. This is the one whose transom is on the left in RedCorvette's photo. It was a rather ingenious kit, with a one-piece hull and yards molded integrally with the masts. It's really a shame that Monogram's designers of that period - who were among the best in the business - never took on a more serious sailing ship project. I don't have one of those kits myself, but on the basis of photographs it appears that the one-piece hull actually has at least some of the prototype's tumble-home molded into it. That must have required some mighty clever designing - and/or some fancy, expensive mold tooling. I can only remember that kit appearing in Monogram boxes, but I guess it's possible that it turned up somewhere in the world under the Revell label too.
Revell's most recent Constitution (not counting the numerous reissues of the 1/192 and 1/96 kits) was an odd thing called the "U.S.S. Constitution Wall Plaque," which (according to Dr. Graham) was in the catalog from 1972 through 1975. Dr. Graham describes it as follows: "Brown plastic. Includes bottle of gold antiquing wax, thread for rigging. These three wall plaques [the others being a "Spanish galleon" and the Cutty Sark] were based on development materials used fro the old full-hull models, but were completely new molds. They are not just half-hulls, but project out from the plaque slightly. Authentic old maps for the backgrounds. Based on H-319 Old Ironsides." I've never seen that one out of its box; I never had any inclination to buy it. Apparently few people did. Dr. Graham gives its current value as $15-20, which, if I remember correctly, isn't much more than the original retail price.
Trivial stuff, but a fun exercise in nostalgia. Anybody who's been a plastic modeler for any length of time really owes it to him/herself to get a copy of Dr. Graham's book. It's a thoroughly enjoyable trip down memory lane.