diff --git a/maven-plugin-plugin/pom.xml b/maven-plugin-plugin/pom.xml
index a3467d0..8630d13 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-plugin/pom.xml
+++ b/maven-plugin-plugin/pom.xml
@@ -45,8 +45,6 @@
     <doxiaVersion>1.4</doxiaVersion>
     <doxia-sitetoolsVersion>1.4</doxia-sitetoolsVersion>
     <it.debug>true</it.debug>
-    <!-- use a previous release of maven-plugin-plugin to build this plugin -->
-    <mavenPluginPluginVersion>3.3</mavenPluginPluginVersion>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
@@ -74,8 +72,8 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin-tools</groupId>
       <artifactId>maven-plugin-annotations</artifactId>
-      <!-- from stricter view, should use ${mavenPluginPluginVersion} but this is causing problems with release plugin -->
-      <!--version>${mavenPluginPluginVersion}</version-->
+      <!-- not the version of plugin-tools actually building, but the version used to build the plugin -->
+      <version>${mavenPluginToolsVersion}</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
 
@@ -253,10 +251,9 @@
         </executions>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
-        <!-- use previous maven-plugin-plugin release to build current maven-plugin-plugin -->
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>${mavenPluginPluginVersion}</version>
+        <!-- will use previous maven-plugin-plugin release to build current maven-plugin-plugin as configured in parent -->
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <id>default-descriptor</id>
@@ -281,7 +278,7 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>${mavenPluginPluginVersion}</version>
+        <version>${mavenPluginToolsVersion}</version>
         <reportSets>
           <reportSet>
             <reports>