I've got an old 92 miata with hardtop, and my front latches are pretty worn out. I found a much on ebay for a much better price than any other site, but my question is do second gen front latches plug n play with 1st gen? also, same question between soft vs hard top? thanks

 

Here, read this. It depends on what year NB exactly they are from.
The Miata Hardtop FAQ

 

the bolts head patterns changed for sure.

Yes slight difference on the latches IRC