A quick trip to Ninfinger's site, and a run through my .pdf versions of the Estes Catalogs, and I've found out the following.
The Mean Machine was introduced in 1978, with white decals, and continued in that livery until 1992. There's a very good chance that the face card evolved over time. However, I'd doubt that there were many changes, if any, to the kit overall.
In 1993, the decals changed to blue, but apparently the engine hook didn't change to the version with the finger tab that year (
the year it was introduced according to mwtoelle), as evidenced by the instructions found on JimZ's site. It would appear to have continued in some form of production until 2004 (there's gaps in the catalogs, but likely was still in production).
It was reintroduced in 2007 as the yellow decaled, "E" powered kit, with the quick link coupler, and apparently remained in production until 2013 (again there are gaps in the catalogs, but not likely in production).