I'm on a Nov-16 shard and trust me I've felt behind the curve all the time as as soon as I reached level 85 so many new toons were released and factions reworked.
But I read the forums and Old Ben was everywhere. There was even a discussion where Old Ben was mentioned and a dev commented yoda style "these speculations interesting they are" kinda confirming the toons mentioned were the right one.
So I started farming Old Ben a few weeks ago and have him 25/100 at 6*. I stopped at 6* in case he wouldn't be needed as that would have been a waste and 100 shards would be doable with the heads up we usually get.