• It was speculated that Old Man Kido had it changed in order to throw off those who knew what an authentic Gold Cloth looked like and try to steal it. (‘Course, it got stolen anyway by Ikki.) [Answer provided by Hecate] • Mu melted a bit gold off – he must have foreseen huge volumes of repair jobs in near future, and materials for repairment don’t just drop from the sky… [Answer provided by Torquemada] • Fashion!!! [Answer provided by Lisa] • Indeed, fashion! They changed the Cloths of the Bronzies for the second season, too… but were too lazy to make the new Gold Cloths more beautiful (Taurus) or practical (Cancer and Scorpio)… [Answer provided by freezee] • Remember the episode, when the helmet and the rest of the Cloth met over a lake? Well, on that journey, a gang of robbers caught the helmet; after a short fight, the helmet managed to escape, but it had to leave some parts.