Jimmy, I know that Bintel have a lot of pull with Meade, Don told me that they asked Meade to send the scopes straight from Taiwan instead of going the long way via the U.S.A.
Star Optics may have imported straight from the U.S. where there were still stocks of the original scope w/out the brake.
Check through the earlier part of this thread I'm sure I posted a picture of the brake
The scopes were made for Meade By Guan Sheng Optics, in Taiwan
Check the "Lightbridge Updates" thread in this section.