Hey, finally back to geekhack.
Just so this thread isn't TOO worried, 27 is alive. I don't know what % of re-finished boards I helped him take back home for QC from the manufacturer, but it was >50% and he's going through them. These were the re-anodized cases. He also dropped the final samples for colour-matching on the powder-coating, and the manufacturer will have it all turned around soon. My understanding is he's currently short on cash for shipping, so he's figuring QC and shipping overhead at the same time. This update is from July 4th (when I last saw him), so you can expect some progress has been made on both fronts.
Just so we're clear, I'm not too up to date on the EXACT status of everything. I'm just trying to give an update some people might not know about to soothe tension.