The stove arrived a few days ago. There was a delay in shipping due to a national holiday in China, although the seller did process the order extremely quickly. Actual transit time was typical at about 3 weeks. It is indeed the round hole version, and came with a drawstring mesh bag. All of the bits fit together fine and build quality seems indistinguishable from the Wild version on display at the local Cotswold.
The fold out legs seem fine, and I found that they don't fold right under the top bit when packing it away - the triangle shapes only fold in far enough to make a sort of pot stand for really small pots. When I got it, these weren't very level, but a bit of careful bending sorted this out. I got the tips of the triangles a little bit lower than the hinges, and a 10cm Zebra is nice and stable, but does need to be placed centrally. With a cup resting on the tips themselves, it's not so stable - I would not use it like this (I'm unlikely to anyway). I think this design of pot support is much better than the bent wire affair on the Wild version.
I also got a Zebra 14cm lunch box (saucepan style) from Tamarack, and will very probably use it with this or a 14cm Zebra billy, depending on what I'm doing. Both 14cm pots are very stable on the extended supports. The stove with its bag fits comfortably into both the 14cm lunch box and billy. If you remove the bowl from the billy, a small Trangia kettle will fit inside on top of the stove, along with a sprit burner. With the lunch box (sans bowl), getting a spirit burner in has to be done right - the trick is to put the burner in upside down so that the narrower diameter cap is nestling into the inverted pyramid shape formed by the pot stands. The Tatonka burner is a bit of a squeeze, and only fits without the simmer ring, while the more squat Trangia goes in easily with its simmer ring fitted. Note that the burners don't go all the way down due to the triangular pot supports getting in the way - if the legs were removed and a trivet used instead, the Tatonka would fit easily with its simmer ring.
I also tried sitting a Crusader cup on top and found this to be a tad unstable. While it doesn't feel like it wants to tip right over, it does have a tendency to want to settle at an angle rather than sit flat, and this happens whether the pot supports are in or out. I found that it was better with the supports out - stability was reasonable when allowing the cup to settle into an angle with one support directly opposite the cup's handles and the other two at the 'corners' either side of the handles. I then tried it the other way round, with one pot support in line with the handles, and made a little discovery - get the tip of the triangle into the gap between the two bits of the wire handle, like this...
...and the cup sits nice and level, and much more stable. Perhaps not quite as stable as the 14cm saucepan, but unlikely to move under its own weight, which was the concern I had with the previous attempts at positioning the Crusader. The cup is supported at the criss-cross of the wire handles on one of the saw tooth bits of the pot stand, and not on the hinge - the idea is to get the criss-cross onto the right tooth to let the other two pot stands support it so that it's level. A trivet would probably be better, but I think I'd be happy to use it like this and just make sure the stove is level and keep an eye on things. I'll report back when I've given it a field test. (The cup contains 0.5L of water, incidentally.)
A comment or two about the 14cm Zebra lunch box. It is not the same as the MSR. The Zebra has butterfly handles on the lid, and comes with a bowl similar to the billies. Unlike the billies, the bowl and lid on the lunch box overhang the rim of the pot. This means that condensation on the underside of the lid would drip down the outside rather than back into the pot, which is what would happen with the inset lid on the billy. Not a big deal, and I think the potential for cooler and more compact wire handles outweighs this. The 14cm billy lid does fit, but is too tall for the saucepan's folding handle. The saucepan's bowl has to be removed to get the stove to fit.
To sum up...
Well worth the 23 quid or whatever it cost. Add in the 14cm saucepan and a Tatonka burner, and it's just over 40 quid, or drop the burner and add the Crusader and Osprey (doable for £16.50 for both - shop around!), for a bit over 50 quid. Add the burner back in for a total of about 60 quid. It's tough on Wild, perhaps, but I am frankly unimpressed with the design of their new pot support and struggle to accept the argument that I should pay them more for a design that I feel is inadequate. Moreover, considering a full cooking kit can be put together for a similar outlay, it is hard to avoid being somewhat mercenary - spending an extra 27 quid on some unwanted bent wire instead just doesn't cut it. I realise Wild have taxes to pay, but the government was perfectly entitled to tax my Chinese import as well (and Parcel Force charge me 8 quid or whatever for the privilege), but they didn't. One dog ate another, and that's the way it is.
On the overall package with the typical options... with the 14cm Zebra lunch box, it makes for a nice, compact stove+pot combo that's easily light enough for backpacking and days out. In conjunction with an Osprey bottle and Crusader cup (or maybe a Nalgene and round cup), there's plenty of scope for making nosh and then getting a brew on while you scoff. All with or without a spirit burner. With the 14cm Zebra billy, it's rather more bulky and heavy - a bit much for backpacking, but fine for car camping or when the camp site is a shortish walk away.
