Quoted from Expletive:For the sake of accuracy, TBL was actually announced in December 2013.
http://www.pinballnews.com/news/lebowski.html
So it's been more than 2 years. If they start shipping soon, I think that is fairly impressive to get a pin out in that time frame from a new company.
But frankly I don't think we will see TBL shipping for quite some time (3 years after announcement).
Who be unboxing first, Hobbit or TBL?