Something to consider. King Kong only had 50,000 polys. The rest was hair and skin shaders. He can laugh, cry, beat his chest, run, jump, fight other nasties and produce in very realist ways a bloody big monkey. The Battlestar Galactica comes in at around 3 and a half million polys. It has a few guns that can go round and point up and down. And it has bits on the side that go in and out. It sits there like a lump, or moves across the screen, like a lump. It kicks Cylon butt, but that is the extent of it. 

My point is, if KK only needs 50,000 polys to produce, where are we going wrong when our pet project hits 100,000. Are we looking at the modelling side the wrong way? Are these projects do-able, we are just going about the basics wrong?