time to lern blender? Ofc, blender is a must :-D joke ;-)

But humans are VERY hard (imho) to model, animate, ...

But I love the people from 3dfoin and their models, so I suggest their models, maybe they fit your agenda? 3dfoin
Good price and looks nice.

If you want to model such a challenge, how about some "step-by-step"-tutorials like this one? Character Modeling in Blender
cgtuts or blender cookie are great for learning and improve blender-skills :-D