Yeah it's suprising how much poly's are eaten up even with the simplest things.
Ideal amount for a baseball bat is around 500 poly's for something used in a game.
Characters can go right up to 15,000
I've started a new character because the zombie was annoying.
Here's the concept i'm using, not going to follow completely though:
Currently getting the forms right for the face using Dynamesh, going to stick to this one, might even put it in Skyrim when it's done:
