Amen to that Quendil - I love the Vendel dwarves and wouldn't mind adding to my host, but the whole stateside thing puts me off
I found the service from SMM to be excellent, it only took 6 or so working days for the minis to arrive, and they sent regular email updates regarding receipt and dispatch of my order.
As I said earlier, my problem was the quality of the casting themselves, at least on the Tudor era Irish figures I bought, they required a lot of hacking and filing to clean up, but turned out ok in the end.
The moulds on fantasy ranges might be in better shape, I can't say for certain.
You can't really see it in this picture, but the gallóglaigh especially required a lot of attention around the hands so that the weapons could be fitted.