>>10259452McFarlane Tyranids are great because they scale with just about anything. They can pass off as Kaijin, Kaiju or actual Tyranids, and are relatively cheap.
1/144 Gundam & Mecha: In other words, the 4 inch stuff. For main robots, the pickings are a little bit slim nowadays. The Gundam Universe line are affordable and tend to go on discount, so that's an option. Albeit a bit tall.
Modern Robot Spirits and SRC are generally overpriced to be honest.
For mecha troops, if you're willing to build, there are a lot of cheap kits out there. From Gundam's 30 Minute Mission line to simply picking up the previous years' troop builders on clearance. You can get them for anywhere from 300 to 1000 yen max. Realistically, 300-500 yen a pop.
1/18 scale: Go buy GI Joes from the 25th Anniversary onwards. Don't knock 'em, they generally still hold up and can still hang with your Acid Rain, especially if you just grime them up a bit with some black shoe polish. Reason is, they're dirt cheap. It let's you build a decent army at a very affordable price.
Shodo and affiliated are another cheap option, which also look fantastico if you're into toku.
NECA Xenos, Predators and Godzillas are also cheap options. They're not necessarily the best toys in terms of joint tolerances, but they look good enough and are relatively inexpensive.
You can also grab loads of Halo MegaBloks. They're great because they're tiny and therefore works well with big bad monsters.
Oh, and Titans are relatively cheap right now. You should grab some while they are. Having a 2 foot tall robot is almost never a bad thing.
Case in point, pic related. I have the tiniest Army Men I can find, which are about 1/70. Dianauts are slightly larger, so I consider them as wearing power suits. Halo MegaBloks are exo suits. Votoms & Wanzer type mechs. Gundams as Real Robots. SRC as Super Robots. Then we have Kaiju and Pacific Rims. Then certain TFs like Vector Prime or leader/supreme class figures. Then Titans.
