It does not appear to be picking up the type from the annotation. For example, when I run the org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.mc.test.BeanTestCase.testBeanWithAnnotation test, its failing with an attempt to create an interface instance:

Caused by: org.jboss.joinpoint.spi.JoinpointException: Constructor not found org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.mc.support.model.AnnotationMetaData[] no constructors
at org.jboss.joinpoint.plugins.Config.findConstructorInfo(Config.java:276)
at org.jboss.joinpoint.plugins.Config.getConstructorJoinpoint(Config.java:150)
at org.jboss.beans.info.plugins.AbstractBeanInfo.newInstance(AbstractBeanInfo.java:221)
at org.jboss.beans.info.plugins.AbstractBeanInfo.newInstance(AbstractBeanInfo.java:216)
at org.jboss.xb.spi.AbstractBeanAdapter.construct(AbstractBeanAdapter.java:115)

 @XmlElement(name="annotation", type=AbstractAnnotationMetaData.class)
 public void setAnnotations(Set<AnnotationMetaData> annotations)
 {
 this.annotations = annotations;
 flushJBossObjectCache();
 }

The problem is this section of code for collections. The annotation property is a collection, and there is no XmlType annotation, so this gets executed:

 // a collection may be bound as a value of a complex type
 // and this is checked with the XmlType annotation
 else if (propertyType.isCollection() && ((ClassInfo) propertyType).getUnderlyingAnnotation(XmlType.class) == null)
 {
 isCol = true;
 propertyHandler = new CollectionPropertyHandler(property, propertyType);
 ClassInfo typeArg = (ClassInfo) findComponentType(property);

 //if (((ClassInfo) typeArg).getUnderlyingAnnotation(XmlType.class) != null)
 if (typeArg != null && typeArg.getUnderlyingAnnotation(JBossXmlModelGroup.class) == null)
 {// it may be a model group in which case we don't want to change the type

 // TODO yes, this is another hack with collections
 JBossXmlChild xmlChild = ((ClassInfo) propertyType).getUnderlyingAnnotation(JBossXmlChild.class);
 if (xmlChild == null)
 {
 localPropertyType = typeArg;
 }
 }
 }

Correction, typeArg is not a collection, its the collection parameter type.

The CollectionPropertyHandler type still needs to be the propertyType as the localPropertyType is only the colllection parameter type when overriden. If the localPropertyType is only overriden when it has not already been set to something other than the propertyType:

 else if (propertyType.isCollection() && ((ClassInfo) propertyType).getUnderlyingAnnotation(XmlType.class) == null)
 {
 isCol = true;
 propertyHandler = new CollectionPropertyHandler(property, propertyType);
 ClassInfo typeArg = (ClassInfo) findComponentType(property);

 //if (((ClassInfo) typeArg).getUnderlyingAnnotation(XmlType.class) != null)
 if (typeArg != null && typeArg.getUnderlyingAnnotation(JBossXmlModelGroup.class) == null)
 {// it may be a model group in which case we don't want to change the type

 // TODO yes, this is another hack with collections
 JBossXmlChild xmlChild = ((ClassInfo) propertyType).getUnderlyingAnnotation(JBossXmlChild.class);
 if (xmlChild == null && localPropertyType.equals(propertyType))
 {
 localPropertyType = typeArg;
 }
 }
 }

I see 10/13 with 1.0.4.GA of org.jboss/test:
Tests run: 638, Failures: 10, Errors: 13, Skipped: 0

and 10/8 with 1.0.0.GA of jboss/test:
Tests run: 638, Failures: 10, Errors: 8, Skipped: 0

which are the 5 errors that are unexpected?

The AbstractTestCase.checkThrowable changed from protected to public static in 1.0.4.GA, but a clean build should not have a problem. I don't see the failure from eclipse when I change its test version to 1.0.4.GA. Doing a mvn clean and install is down to 11 errors, and there are no IncompatibleClassChangeErrors.

org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.attribute.test.IntegerUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 1, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.531 sec <<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.attribute.test.StringUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 1, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.532 sec <<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.element.xmlelement.test.DefaultsUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.547 sec <<<
FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.element.xmlelement.test.NonDefaultsUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.547 sec <
<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.element.xmlelement.test.NoneUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.531 sec <<< FAIL
URE!
org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.type.value.test.IntegerUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 1, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.656 sec <<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xb.builder.object.type.value.test.StringUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 2, Failures: 1, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.515 sec <<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xml.AnnotatedPojoServerUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 11, Failures:3, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.078 sec <<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xml.JbxbPojoServerUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 11, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.078 sec <<< FAILURE!
org.jboss.test.xml.RepeatedElementsUnitTestCase.txt:Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.703 sec <<< FAILURE!