I recently took a chance at ordering some cheap people. 100 O Scale people for $8.81 and .99 shipping... from China! I did not expect much after reading some of the reviews.
There were MANY duplicates. Not just the molds of people, but the paint schemes too.
There were mostly standing people. Not too many sitting.
These were not your "Front Line" people. They were "back of the layout" a few feet away type quality.
But I think I may have found a better use. I really wanted sitting people for all of our coach cars. Years ago I bought a pack of Beep People. Good quality and at the time a pack of 50 was about $25. However, recently I saw a pack for $45, so I don't know if the price really went up that much or if the vendor priced them too high.
I figured for passenger cars, people don't have to be perfect.
So I added a little heat on the subject, bent the hips and bent the knees and voila... cheap seated person.
First I put my burner on as low as possible without flaming out.
I held the figure using pliers over heat on the hips for just a second or two.
Then I used the workbench to bend the hip 90 degrees.
By now the plastic is cool enough to touch but still soft. The knees can be bent using your hands.
About 10-20 seconds later, the plastic has cooled and hardened again.
The video shows a mixed of the Beep People and the Chinese People. It's hard to tell the difference and they don't look too bad in a moving train.
Ron