Well, my order from Amazon was delivered today, and as I feared from seeing the beat up shipping box, it was damaged. The actual Gentle Giant box had very very minor damage on one corner, but the spear was broken in two and the lower spear tip was chipped off/missing. The knife & dog tags were rattling around loose inside the Styrofoam but were not damaged. One of her flippers had the foot retainer piece broken off, but looked like it just needed to be glued back on. It didn't have any actual broken pieces.
It was fairly obvious that the horrible packing job Amazon did (a few crumpled up sheets of paper tucked on one side of the inner box) caused the inner box to slide & bang around inside the outer shipping box.
It's a shame because besides a few very minor non-damage related flaws that I could have lived with, she looked great. Mine was #210/600. She will be going back to Amazon this week.