I just started collecting miniatures about six months ago and have kind of gone hog-wild since: I've probably spent $700 or more (and counting). Anyways, I started with Reaper and still buy them--it is hard to beat the price and they are effectively a D&D line (although their characters are better/more diverse than their monsters)--but I just recently bought my first Rackham Confrontation figures and was blown away. Since then (about a month ago) I have been buying up Confrontation figures in a fury: I'm doing what I did with Reaper, going through the Rackham store, compiling a list of what I want, looking for it on Ebay and Bartertown, updating my "queue." I feel like I kind of missed the boat, because most online sellers got rid of their stock for big discounts last summer and fall--Rackham is downsizing the metal production, evidently, if not cancelling it outright (or changing it to resins). You can still find a lot of stuff on Ebay and Bartertown, and one or two other spots online, but for the most part everything is gone. But for my money, Rackham made some of the most beautiful, detailed miniatures that have an incredible artistic sensibility.
As for other lines, Avatars of War makes some nice figures, but be warned that the greens on their website are a lot nicer than the actual metal figures. Andrea makes some nice figures, especially the 54mm Warlord line. Ultraforge has some incredible resin figures, although I haven't wanted to fork out the dough (yet). I've onlly bought a couple Games Workshop Warhammer figures--I find them to be a bit cartoony. Others that I like: Dark Sword, Ironwind, Crocodile, Hell Dorado, Freebooter, Red Box, Enigma, etc.
So again, my absolute favorite line is Rackham's Confrontation followed by Reaper; everything else is far behind.
