Brian's backlog is purely to do with the time taken to hand-cast the buttons, if you make it obvious that you don't need any buttons cast, then he may be able to help you out much sooner. Obviously I can't speak for him, but it's worth asking IMO.

As to the shipping aspect, It is only necessary to ship the display board, not the whole unit. If you were in Boston, I'd offer to do it for you, but I'm not driving all the way to Vancover