Get that 3DWorld magazine #100 mentioned above, if you have Carrara 5 Pro on it indeed that's a great value. I mean that's huge. Very decent modeling tools, from vertex modeling with sub-D, to Spline modeling, and others. And C5 Pro has lots of tools that came from Amapi, too. Like Gordon surfaces.

And the rest is not bad at all eithger, like the rendering, environment, skies, trees, object replicators....

Carrara is my favorite allround 3D tool.

Of course, there are different types of specialty modelers too. Like Curvy3D and Archipelis, where you draw 2D shapes or curves and it builds 3D models from it.

What sort of things are you looking to do?