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Do you mean for your own use/playtesting or for an actual small run?

If you're play testing, you should be able to find figures slightly cheaper than that. I use historicals a lot, which run like 8 bucks for 40 figures but they suit some of my games pretty well. Fantasy and such would be harder to find a lot cheaper.

If you're talking about having sculpts produced, it'll probably run you about 250 per inch of height (e.g. 25/28mm figures will be about that), unless you find someone who cuts you a break.

You could do your own resin casting if you want to produce a small run for your own use. There's some threads on here about that if you search. Die casting is pretty expensive for short runs, but there are companies that will do smaller runs in metal or resin. If you have figures and want to do a real short run, you could have molds made for ~ 150 and figures cast in metal at like .25 a pop.

Without knowing much about your game, my first reaction is: yes, 8 different decks is too much. Not because of the actual quantity of cards - although that too might become a problem when you try to get this game published, especially when there are a lot of different cards - but because it hints at wanting to do too many things with the design and pushing it in too many directions. Often games are much better when they focus on two or three interlocking aspects, instead of doing a little bit of everything.

You might want to think about how you could combine several decks into one. Perhaps you use certain cards for magic spells, and other cards for combat. Maybe you could combine these two different aspects in one card, so that a player has to choose whether he wants to use it as a spell, or as a combat card. This way you can reduce the number of components and add an interesting decision at the same time! That's what I personally find the most interesting and challenging aspect of game design, trying to wring as much "game" as possible out of a tight package of components and rules.