Servos for heavy loads, and microcontroller question?

Ok guys Ive got a project coming up that will be pushing the limits of my animatronic skills. Long story short ill be building various props/magic tricks for a local haunted attraction scheduled for next year. Ill be using lots of different actuators in this project. I already have good sources for pistons, springs, air tracks, gas springs basically all of my really heavy duty mechanisms are covered. Most of my small stuff can be handled with small DC servos that I have a supplier for locally. And then theres the issue Ive got several medium duty applications to fulfill that pneumatic pistons wont be suited for. I can build lever or pulleys as needed so I would like to utilize some servos for a few of these.

What Im looking for are suggestions of sources for servos that can be used to actuate a lever capable of lifting ~5 lbs or moving something on a pulley ~10 lbs without having to get into ridiculous gear ratios.

Most of the props I have been asked to build will be fairly simple to fire and all of the servos/pistons can simply fire and then reset so simple switches will be used. However for a few of these were looking at more complex timings, or repeating motion. Im a very capable programmer so choice of language isnt important, but what are some choices for micro controllers which could be used for something like this? Also if anyone has used something like an arduino or the TI equivalent to control a stepper motor?

I think this is an arduino type task. There is a thread in the voltmod area with a few posts about micro controller boards.

Mhh, I had a friend that was big into RC planes. 8' wingspans. The servos were ciggaretish pack in size and had TONS of torque. There are all sorts of servos for RC stuff that might work just fine, but that's all I know about them.

As said above, servos come in all sorts of sizes.
Beyond a certain point a stepper motor and driver board might be cheaper though.

Either way, an Arduino is up to the task, as is the nice cheap MSP430 setup.
I think I'd go with an Arduino though, as the shields and libraries available for the Arduino make things very easy.
Actual chip wise, the MSP430 is more capable for some things, but driving animatronics isn't one of them IMO. Not on a short time frame anyway.