As a license holder intending to create something incorporate all 3 movies, I suspect Jack & co will have access to at minimum a summary of the full 3-movie script, so they can at least plan out what major features they want. Final artwork and model designs may have to wait until much closer to the third film.

Just picture it as something similar to WOZ and the witch - they knew roughly what they wanted, but what they first came up with doesn't look a whole lot like what's there now.

I think most people were expecting something that MOVED. Whether it be a barking Toto head... a curtain that revealed the Wizard... a fan a la Twister... those air-powered flame thingies... something that rose out of the backbox (I remember that guess being made when the early backbox photos showed clear varnished tops) and so forth.

At PPE, Jack said this:

Guy: Can the topper change color?
Jack: This one can't, no.
Guy: But it will change?
Jack: Ehhh... this one won't. It's green, cuz it's the Emerald City.
Guy: And behind the logo on the backglass, is that going to have any
kind of lighting effect, or is that just going to be a single...
Jack: No, it's going to be just that, right now.

It's hard to decipher what's meant by this. Is the clue "this one can't", ie. the one on this machine isn't the only one that they're making... or is the clue "it's the Emerald City", which means because the LE is the Emerald City edition, this is what you're going to get regardless of what they could've done.