It is a great pin. Enjoy it!

The packing material is at the back of the playfield between the pf and cabinet. It is only visible if you slide the pf out like in your picture. It was attached to the pf or cabinet I forget but there are two pieces of foam attached there you need to remove.

As I recall it is on the sides. It is grey so not that obvious and not that visible. Mine was a 31 Oct build. I did not see it at first.

Enjoy the game it is a blast!

Not all that close to the monkey I don't think so look towards the ends of the pf.

I think it was mentioned in the unpack instructions and I had seen other mentions too. As I recall the foam is there to stop the top of the pf from hitting the cabinet. I remember reading one person left it in for a while with no harm done.