Similar to le1120, I am using a Printrbot as my workhorse, a plus for me, at $1200 its a bit pricier than the $750 Simple, but the heated bed for more advanced filaments (other than PLA), and the larger build size (which I have used to print a couple impressively large pieces, its build volume is roughly 10"x10"x10", so diagonally you can print things up to about 14". As he mentioned NO printer (aside from ones that cost 100k+) will be a hassle-free lifetime experience. you WILL have issues, things will break, prints just wont work, and you WILL have to learn your machine, and the art of 3dprinting in general.
Every printer is not the same, and I would STRONGLY advise the weak of heart to stand clear of sub $400 cheap chinese printers, I owned one of these as my first machine but it broke CONSTANTLY, and I got extremely close to giving up on printing in general due to its inability to work for two weeks in a row. Other options that I would recommend, someone who has been printing for 2 years, and worked for Printrbot building and manufacturing printers, is any of the Printrbot offerings (except for the play in this case as its small build volume is less than optimal for prop work), as well as the Ultimaker 2 (about $2500), Ultimaker 2 Go (about $1500), The TAZ Lulzbot Mini ($1250), and the TAZ 6 ($2500).
As for lower priced options, I have heard good things about the SeeMeCNC Eris (A delta style printer, $550), and HIGHLY reccomend the Prusa i3
MK2 (Kit is $700, built is 900).
I know its tempting to jump for the cheapest printers you can find, but you will end up with a cheap printer built with a knockoff hotend and extruder, and sub-optimal electronics and hardware. If you must go the cheapest route, always avoid printers off of alibaba.com, and anything that has an acrylic frame (either it gets broken in shipping or at home accidentally.)