The only down sides I've run into so far are:
1. It's a bit clicky
2. The wheel being thumb-driven is a bit awkward for me
The utility I'm using (SteerMouse) sadly doesn't seem to properly support chording for using the trackball for scrolling, but I've contacted the dev about that and if he can get it working, then I'll be 100% happy with this.
If you can find a Huge at a decent price (they're ~$37 USD here in Japan), I'd highly recommend giving it a shot. The Ploopy seems like a far worse deal in comparison to me (though I don't have the nostalgia connection) at $200 CAD.