Unless you've already found a way to get your hands on some form of Maya, this may not be as relevant, but Truong has some amazing stuff for sale, and which he has generously provided for free. His youtube page is also really inspiring and interesting to poke through.
https://gumroad.com/truongcgartist
The models are FBX, and many of them, even the free ones, are done using advanced rigging so if you were/are new to anmation in 3D like me and get to play around with it and sort through the organizational structure; it's hard not to find some seriously interesting fun in it, like making the Irex from Jurassic park look amused.
Here's a link to his youtube too!