I honestly don't have a problem with the parts not shipping until the 15th. It gives me time to design my robot in CAD for the game, and since all of the parts for the VersaChassis are available for CAD on the WCP/VEXpro websites I can easily design my drivetrain in an hour at most, and move on knowing I can change my drive at any time because the VersaChassis product line is so interchangeable. So if kickoff is January 4th, that gives me a week and a half to design most of my robot in CAD, I order my parts when I know what I want, then they ship on the 15th, which is a Wednesday, so that I know when they arrive at or before Saturday I have a simple and functional drivetrain model to work off of, and in a matter of hours I'll have a functional drivetrain we can use at the end of week 2.

I'm not sure when the manual will be released, but I'd argue it's coming up within the next week if not sooner.