Polygon seem to try multiple ways to build statements in desperate hope that one of pdflatex/latex+dvips + ps2pdf or something would work.
This leads to incorrect error reporting if picture is present. If there is some error AFTER picture, pdflatex fails on that and the system tries to use latex+etc, which, however, cannot determine the size of the picture. Only the error output of the last attempt to build statements is reported, which makes it very difficult to find and fix problem in such case.
Suggested solution that keeps backward compatibility: add a checkbox for the contest "always use pdflatex to build statements", on by default. pdflatex lately seems more stable and reliable.