Well, it was only in the Bardock special that he instantly destroys Vegeta.
Goku mentions that Freeza was afraid he might not survive the blast and so he subconsciously held back or something, I don't remember.
Also 50% power Freeza is ~110x stronger than first form Freeza.
edited 19th Jun '12 5:54:18 AM by Saiga
Loved the Brick Joke concerning Frieza saying there's only five minutes left.
I can't tell what Frieza says after the KIDNEY SHOT sequence. "Dodo is red"?
Long live Cinematech. FC:0259-0435-4987I'm going to whizz red, as in he's going to piss blood after those kidney shots.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |Dende made the best wish for the scenario in both the abridged and original series, because they still didn't know how much collateral damage would be caused by the still ongoing fight. Frieza could've just tried to blow the planet up again.
And they could always wish for a New Namek (which they indeed did) or to return to the old one, down the line.

yeah in the end it even Goku was saying things like 'if you want to fight me again, just train/learn some new tricks and come back later'