Hey there, sorry if this is the wrong place to post, I just didn't know where to post. So, I recently joined Bloomilk and am looking for advice.

About 4 years ago, there was a demo for SWM at a local comic book shop. Due to being a fan of Star Wars, i decided to try it out. I ended up liking it a lot. I decided to purchase the starter pack. Unfortunately, no one else in my area picked up the game. I was like, "It's cool, they're still awesome display pieces, I'll just collect them". At this time, The Clone Wars set came out, and I bought 1 booster. Unfortunately, the only shop in my area that sold SWM, sold boosters for $21.00. The price tag along with a non-existing local scene eventually dampened my interest until my minis collected dust in my shelf for years. Fast forward four years, and I trade somebody a Heroclix (another miniature game) for 25 clone troopers on a whim. This reignites my interest for the game. Come to find out, SWM has been discontinued. Now that I've bored you with my story, here's where I'm seeking advice.

I'm a huge Republic fan. I'm also a fan of displaying things. I've been looking around, and a lot of the Republic pieces have nice sculpts, but if I ever played the game, would they be an alright faction to field?

Also, how do you all suggest I buy minis? I've been in talks with members of Bloomilk about purchasing minis from them, but was wondering if there were more beneficial ways of buying minis. A side note, I've seen cases on sale online, but I am on a limited budget, so that is out of my range.

What other faction would you all suggest that have the good sculpts or poses?

And one last thing, and this is more of a Rules question, When it says characters with the Fringe faction can be played in any faction, does that mean I can play them from any era?

Thanks all, and I'm sorry once again if this is the wrong place to post, and the length.

Unfortunately in today's game, good sculpts and good beginner pieces tend to be a bit mutually exclusive. The older sets have the best sculpts, but have been mostly obsoleted by power creep. The newer sets (Clone Wars and later) are a lot more newb friendly as you can easily make a semi-competitive squad with just the pieces from one of those sets, but the sculpts tend to be rather bad, especially for the commons and uncommons, a shining example being the 501st Legion Stormtrooper, who looks like a card-carrying member of the Frieda Kahlo Corps.

For buying minis, buying in bulk is always better than buying singles. Don't buy packs unless you're buying them in cases or are getting a really good deal on them. Start on the later sets first as they tend to be cheaper overall and have more relevance in today's meta. While you said that buying cases was a little out of your budget, you might want to consider saving up for one of the later sets, as a case for a 40-piece set will yield 1/2 of the VRs, 1 of each R, 2 of each UC, and 4 of each C, leaving only 4 pieces to finish the set, which depending on your luck, will take between $20 and $80 to finish off.

Thanks all for the great advice!