The SD pulse rifle is the best hands down. But if you are on a budget or have customs issues with where you live, the MIM kit is a pretty good deal. I'm from Canada and just recieved my MIM kit and it does have some issues. You'll have lots of air holes to fill, flash to remove, warpage to fix, but that being said, it can be made up into a nice piece from what I've seen. There is nothing that you can't fix. The G&P kit + Marui Thompson are about 3 to 4 times the cost of the MIM kit for me here. And yes, there are the customer service issues with MIM. My kit came missing a bunch of parts(some pretty important ones). I emailed them within a day of recieving it(delivered Xmas eve, emailed Boxing Day[26th]). I have recieved and acknowledgement from MIM, but nothing since then. I'm still happy with my kit. It's a reasonable price, and you can do a lot with it. I plan to replace the parts I can with metal ones. Just my 2 cents.
Cheers, Kevin