I would pass on the Academy kit

If you want a good early Tiger with interior its easier and cheaper to buy the Tamiya kit and an aftermarket (accurate) interior. The Academy interior isn't very good and you will spend more fixing the many annoying details in the kit (like replacing the whole turret).

I guess its a matter of semantics but initial and early are the same thing. Dragon did do an initial Tiger I, or as you could also call it, a very early one. Its got the handed left and right tracks, no side skirting, no muffler covers, and early turret bins. Its a quite nice kit, although its OOP and somewhat scarce.

In Dragon's mail order Cyber line they did some other Tiger I versions, although as far as mainstream, over the counter kits, they just have their initial and late kits.