What's the difference

[Magnum PI]

I believe the cabinet VSG labels are from earlier releases.  With the popluarity also came confusion with people seeing the cabinet tag under the regular cabinet series and the new VSG so they changed it.  I think early on in this hobby for me I actually bought a cabinet thinking it was a VSG.

How different did they smoke Pips?

This is correct.  The bands were changed to eliminate confusion - or maybe create some.  The cabinet VSG labels are from the earlier releases.  Found this:

'Ashton began switching over to a modified VSG band in 2006 that eliminates the word Cabinet from the band, and makes the VSG moniker more prominent. The cigars are identical, this is just a branding change.' - www.vitolas.net