darkSpyro

My son picked up a blue Bash today and was really disappointed to see it was a standard colour ingame the same as the normal Bash model he already has. (curiously they also seem to read the ssame stats despite the blue one never being opened until now)

Does this mean the other special or limited edition models are only surface effect paintjobs like this one or are there any which also have a similar ingame colour.
Dark Spyro we know about and have already.

Only the varites are the same ingame the legendary and dark skylanders such as and are the same coulor as there figs in game

The Legendary figures (Spyro, Chop Chop and Bash) and Dark Spyro are the only "variants" that are shown in-game any differently than their original counterparts. The others (silver, gold, clear,glow in the dark, blue Bash) are all just superficial reprints with no in-game difference other than starting at level 5 with 2100 gold.

I think your question was answered, but they really went with a dumb route for variants. It would have made them a lot more special than just a changed paint job. I know they're collectors items (something that I don't think a lot of parents are understanding, as was one of the huge outcries from the Blue Bash event) but really..how hard would it have been to make a character's model in game be a different color?

The Variants that appear differently in the game are Legendary Trigger Happy, Legendary Spyro, Legendary Chop Chop, Legendary Bash and Dark Spyro. Aside from getting the other 32 Characters and the 4 Adventure Packs, there is also the Volcanic Vault which unlocks another PVP arena. If you want All the Skylanders then the Variants are also a must. Variants as posted above start at level 5 with 2,100 gold.

Aside from that if you hear about people purchasing two of the same Skylanders it is because there are two upgrade paths a Skylander can go down. The easiest way to differentiate between the two is to have one set of Skylanders opened and one set still in the package.