Well I been watching the forum for quite a while now and also looked at a couple of machines. Heres what i think- the older yellow machines are definitely what people call an assembled kit. Looks like you could take one apart and put it back together with new bolts and clean it up and have something pretty usable. The new patriot machine is pretty much ready to go with nice finish and stainless steel bolts. Idecided on the patriot even though its twice the price of the yellow ones because i want to get going right away. plus they had the patriot in stock. There was a lot of talk about spare parts and stuff by another guy, so I sent them an e mail and asked if they had those castings in stock. They said they did and gave me the part numbers and prices. I'm going to pick my machine up in Vegas this weekend and see the castings in person then i will post more when i get it home.