Seems more like a competitive deal than a good deal.
I believe Smiley is the latest person to introduce something to get started...
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1270229972
http://www.smileymicros.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=11&MMN_position=24:24
This was a good discussion about starter kits...
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1246377148
I'm a fan of Lady Ada's work so I'm going to mention her starter kit...