Epiphone built a new factory to make guitars, could they be making these pickups there? Could the Chinabuckers have been built in that factory to test manufacturing, and quality control, and sold them un-named to test acceptance?
So we were all unwitting beta testers? The cheque is in the post, right?
The construction of the Chinabuckers fits this hypothesis. The braided shielding on the hookup cable is not something I commonly associate with pickups from Chinese pickup plants. It is a nice period feature, but I would expect to see generic PVC insulation (and 4-wire + shield hookup) pretty much as standard.
Also, the Chinabuckers weren't simply generic Epiphone/Tokai black Thunderbird pickups with a different cover glued on top. It seems like they went to some effort to get these close to '60s specs. For what reason? To flog them on Eyguitars? I wager that Chinabuckers, or some variation thereof, are going into these new Epiphones.