just try to do something poor (which is very far from epic) and think about the time you spent to build that poor thing.
time is priceless, if you don’t want to spend your time doing it and just want to buy it: thats the price for someone else doing it.
20$ for the prototype characters is ok thinking about the sales quantity (if it really sells). but 20$ for only one person isn’t so fair
(protip: try asking someone to make an exclusive epic model for you)
what you want is kinda specific, so you have 2 options: do it by yourself or hire someone else to do it.
about the animations: http://www.kubold.com/ and http://www.ikinema.com