I imagine a servo or two is perfect for controlling the control surfaces of a model rc aircraft or boat.
What else are servos used for? Looking for some inspiration.
What is a good brand name to buy?
Ken
Because they are cheap there are plenty of uses in small robots - but you will not get much precision
from them, and the torque output is limited. They can be useful in various mechanisms where a small
controlled motion is needed.
As for brands remember that all the cheap ones are cheap for a reason - don't expect much quality
control for instance - when it matters its worth going for ball bearings and metal gears and digital
servos. Ones expressly designed for robotics are likely to be more capable and repeatable.
neksmerj:
What else are servos used for? Looking for some inspiration.
Operating turnouts and signals and uncouplers on a model railway.
I don't disagree with @MarkT's advice. However my strategy would be to start with a cheap servo and only upgrade if it proved necessary.
...R
We use hitec , savox, futaba , and proamps. They usually run $130-200 each . We are moving to digital brushless which are all metal gear with some being tititaium coated.
fullspool:
They usually run $130-200 each
That would pay for a new laptop 
I would consider $20 expensive for a servo.
But then I am only playing with them.
...R
Hobby King has inexpensive servos of various sizes to start experimenting with. The below 5010 servo is very easy to modify for continuous rotation if that is desired.
I also like HobbyKing servos.
Here are my top three.
HXT900 can rotate a full 180 degrees and are very strong for their size.
I haven't used these VS-11 Vigor servos much, but they seem to be strong.
HXT12K Metal gear servo. These can be converted to CR and back very easily.
I purchased a bunch of HXT900 and HXT12K servos in order to use them in hexapods but before I started using the servos in hexapods, I used 16 of each kind of servo in this demo. I thought it was fun to see all those servos moving together.
By the time I got around to building a my larger hexapod, I had converted too many of the HXT12K servos to continuous rotation so I was a couple servos short of 18 for the hexapod. Fortunately I had saved the little parts I had removed from the servos and I was very pleased to find the servos could easily be converted back to normal.
I purchase a lot of stuff off ebay but I don't purchase servos off ebay. I've had bad luck with ebay servos. HobbyKing's servos aren't top quality but they are pretty consistent in providing parts which working reasonably well.
neksmerj:
I imagine a servo or two is perfect for controlling the control surfaces of a model rc aircraft or boat.What else are servos used for? Looking for some inspiration.
What is a good brand name to buy?
Ken
If you are looking at a flying model then big brands such as futaba are the way to go.
For ground based stuff cheap with plastic gears will often suffice as an failure is less likely to be catastrophic.
They can be used for any where slow mechanical motion is needed such as operating a lock
Below is how I modify the 5010 servos for continuous rotation. The black plastic pot locking collar probably could be reinstalled to return the servo to normal operation if desired.
Thanks gents for your comments, reckon I'll start with a cheapie to muck around with.
Ken
neksmerj:
I imagine a servo or two is perfect for controlling the control surfaces of a model rc aircraft or boat.What else are servos used for? Looking for some inspiration.
What is a good brand name to buy?
Ken
Opening and closing things.