Great stuff
for ages i had been thinking of having a go at redesigning/building some of these using LED displays but you've beat me to it
i still might one day just to see how they turn out, but maybe i might just wait and see, if you produce yours as a kit first!!
regarding the original 4543 decoder ICs i bought a shitload of them from Farnell (now called Element14) while stocking up on hard to get ICs.
BTW i like the look of the blue LED displays, would look good in my home made Vortex pin