They're molding it in clear so instead of the $20 it would have normally cost, it'll be somewhere in the $50~range. Other than the Defiant, I doubt they did any retooling of the kit itself.

The build is pretty straightforward; the halves of the pylons and rings go together, the central core goes together in pieces and then you deal with the small stuff like the docking ports and the antenna farm on the top of the ops tower and the weapon sail batteries. That's essentially it.