I'd hate to jinx it, but it actually does seem like assembly will be starting soon (all the final parts to make ~1000 units have arrived in UK; Craig likes the quality of the case and has assembled a unit without trouble; and MWeston's plane should land in the UK in a few hours and he can then begin helping Craig assembling & shipping them out). The first batch is actually 4000, not 1000; the limiting parts are the PCBs and cases for the remaining 3000 (but if all goes to plan, they should trickle in while the others are being made, so their absence shouldn't cause a delay; of course, something could not go to plan...I'm just glad I'm in the first 1000
).
So yeah, first batch is 4000, and it was confirmed a long time ago that they plan on doing a second batch as well (of also 4000?).
I'm also in a camp similar to "I'll believe it when I see it," but it is hard to say much can go wrong at this point.