It is my opinion that Joe is making these much more quickly now than before. He seems to be mostly caught up on these orders.
When I ordered mine from D&J Toys back in January 2011, it took all of eleven months for him to complete and mail out to me, but when it did arrive in December, it was flawless and amazing. I could easily see the amount of work he put into the assembly, and was glad that I didn't try building it myself.
If you have some money and the time to wait for it, I highly recommend getting one of these for any collection. Maybe someday these will be worth more than the originals!?!
He recently posted a video on YouTube showing part of the assembly process. Here is a link to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c54xlafGs4c&feature=youtu.be