I have to pick One Piece. It's long like DBZ, funny chacaters, and good story.
If I have to pick a mecha anime. Gundam 0080, I saw it so many times, I got bored just thinking about it. But, good mecha designs, sad end, and nice music.
It's hard, when you try to learn a new program and model something complex as this at the same time. Unless you want to learn Sketchup, like other said go with 3Dmax.
I like both Models and toys, but over the years I started to like toys a bit more. Sometimes when I look at a model, it does have that hollow empty feeling to it. Toys has more substance stuff in it, though one might think it should be other way around. I don't really get it.
Ghostkiller, that's a cool engine!