Chen is doing a tab based on an implemented architecture. How about doing a phone and using architecture from Turing? Jolla has software for it too. Chen did you check it out already?

Turing is a very secretive company; I doubt they will allow anyone else to build something off of their architecture.

I seriously doubt that they still exist to allow something like that

Was any actual Turing phone ever even released? Not talking about the pre-release freebies they handed out to appease impatient buyers, but the full phone with all the announced specifications.

Don't think so

They shipped a few production units -- or at least the pilot run of production units -- in addition to the pre-production phones. If you look around on eBay, there are a few that crop up from time to time. The all-black ones are the pre-production units and the garish gold plated, fleur-de-lis bedazzled ones are the ones that actually (supposedly) have the waterproof coating.

Now, having said that, I'll admit that it's possible that the gold ones are just the same thing as the black "beta" models with crap glued on. They do fetch a premium at auction over the black ones, so maybe one can paint over them or use a case for a more adult look.

Was there anything special in it that would justify bringing it back to life ?
I can see the look as differentiating (which I personally find ugly, but I won't question other people tastes), but you could do that with a simple cover.
Apart this point, you can have easily, today, a phone which has a Sailfish community port that is working reasonably well according to reports, at a low cost, with good performances (One plus and Nexus for example), so it wouldn't bring much novelty.

The tablet case can be seen as a bit different, as there are not much (or not at all?) community ports for tablets.

just buy a nexus 5 and stick on the latest port

I can guarantee you that Turing never released any of the final model with the waterproof coating. The black and gold models were both the prototypes. (I have both).

The black phone is great, looks very good, very unique and feels really good in the hand so it would be interesting if someone could produce them. Only problem is that both the bluetooth and battery life are flakey. Some days the battery will last 2 days, others it drops from 90% to 10% in a matter of minutes. I think at firmware/kernel update is needed to fix, which sadly will never come.

I can guarantee you that Turing never released any of the final model with the waterproof coating. The black and gold models were both the prototypes. (I have both).

The black phone is great, looks very good, very unique and feels really good in the hand so it would be interesting if someone could produce them. Only problem is that both the bluetooth and battery life are flakey. Some days the battery will last 2 days, others it drops from 90% to 10% in a matter of minutes. I think at firmware/kernel update is needed to fix, which sadly will never come.