Ok, all caught up on the thread, seen the cases and NOW I feel I can give a reasoned opinion on the state of the cases. To begin, I'm pretty sure MWeston has more cases he could show, and that he didn't choose the best of the bunch just so he could show us the imperfections, the worst case case as it were. I took that into consideration when forming my opinion.
First off, the discolouration is obvious this time. The second revision I didn't notice any problems of colour even after it was pointed out to me. This time, flecks and smudges are blatant, and it is covered in scratches that weren't there on the second revision case. One can only hope that it was made with poor quality plastic. Someone screwed up big time with the communication on this one, whether it is recycled plastic or not. It could have been OpenPandora who wasn't clear on what they wanted, or the factory that forgot or cut corners or something, hard to say for certain which. This is something to consider.
Second, the rough edges; keep one thing in mind when looking at them: we are really, really zoomed in. 13:2 on my screen, more or less. Most of the irregularities at this scale look a little more than 1 mm on my screen, say 1.5 mm. That makes them about 3/13ths at largest on the final product: less than a quarter of a mm discrepancy. I look close at my DS lite and cell phones and I'm noticing that similar rough edges occasionally crop up on them as well. This is not to say "if it's good enough for other companies, it's good enough for us" because there are a few more of these rough edges on the Pandora that I can see than on my DS and phones. What it is to say is that maybe there's a reason they exist even on big name products: you simply can't avoid them 100%. Remember too, MWeston specifically set out to find flaws, and once the pictures were posted, so were we. When you try to find a flaw, you will find a flaw, even if it's only 3/13ths of a mm in size. Final opinion on these rough edges: too small, no one will notice them unless they are pointed out or you're specifically looking for something to be wrong, and may be unavoidable in total, all as demonstrated by other major companies manufacturing.
Third, the hinge crack. I'm stepping outside the realm of what is known and inserting some supposition, so this may be revisited in the not so distant future. My assumption is that the crack is not a natural thing, that something specifically happened to cause it in this instance and MWeston is using it as a "worst case" case. I believe so because I don't think they would ever consider sending out a case with a crack in it to a user, and Craigix said they were considering using some of these cases as final units, therefore at least some of the cases must not have this crack in it. It obviously wasn't caused by being screwed together too tightly or anything like that, as they aren't screwed together, simply fitted. I withhold final judgment on this but will, for the time being, assume it was an unfortunate accident that caused this one case to be cracked as it is.
Lack of silkscreen: very big problem, since part of this 3rd revision was supposed to be ensuring the silkscreen was lined up properly. Again, someone screwed up, and given they were on the second revision I definitely don't think it was OpenPandora on this one. It's obvious the silk screening should have been there, and the mould factory knew it, but they didn't do it for some reason.
The dent on the back of the case is about the worst thing I can see. It doesn't look accidental, like the hinge, it looks as if it is actually the result of the moulding process. It could still be a one off accident, just like the hinge crack. I'm hoping it is, but hope doesn't pay the bills anymore.
The gap between top and bottom of the cases is nothing in my mind. They look like they'll sit pretty flush when screwed together. I'm happy with that much. The only place they don't look flush is, again, back of the hinge where the crack is. It separates a bit from one side to the other. On my screen, it's about 3mm, which makes it about 6/13ths separation from one side to the other: half a mm difference. This IS noticeable if you are at least somewhat conscious of it. My DS has a similar separation, and now that I've seen it I can't unsee it. So in my opinion, it's really too small to notice on what would be a final console unless you were looking for it, similar to the rough edges mentioned above; unlike the rough edges, however, once you're aware of it, it'd be harder to ignore. This may also be something to take into consideration.
Summary: if it were just the rough edges, I would say go for it. Those rough edges always exist in a machine process, but they're really so small you don't notice them unless you're looking for them, and they "disappear" once you're not paying attention to them. I'm sure a person with a hand sander could make them go away, but a machine can't, so there's no point in worrying over them. The smudges on the case do not concern me, but the scratches do. Assuming it can be established why a brand new product is so scratched up and how it can be avoided, I'd say go for it. The hinge crack and the dent on the case below it are the two primary concerns: are they accidental, or the result of the mould? For these alone I would reject them.
Conclusion: I would not like this particular case that we have been shown because of obviously low quality plastic, a crack, and a dent. Until we know the status of the plastic, and what caused the crack and dent (and if they're consistent or not) I refuse to form a full opinion on whether I think the moulds should be accepted or we go back to waiting.
