I've seen on YouTube some videos of full size, metal gear servos, rated 32kg/cm pulling 4 full crates of Coca Cola.
And I've seen the prices on those servos: I did come across one that was selling for only about $150, but mostly they have list prices on the order of $300 and street prices around $200. Each.
That's almost 10 times focalist's budget (which is a little iffy, but do-able with a little luck in finding good deals on servos/steppers, and a design that doesn't rely on brute force).