I tried modifying an 8900 template (same screen size as Tour) but the Tour doesn't see it in the theme list even though it loaded with no errors via the desktop manager.
Not soon enough. This is really ridiculous. The phone is pretty much a combo of parts from other phones already in production so its not like they are starting from scratch. I don't see what could possibly be delaying it this much.
Rim does this **** on purpose. There is no reason why the next version of plazmic shouldn't be out to cater to the tour. I know some people who are holding off in purchasing the tour because of the current themes situation.