I just started beading and am focusing on Pokemon, so here's a long winded write up. Like a lot of other people here, I started with presorted packs like this one, which have about about 250 of each color in them. Amazon has three packs like that and I bought one of each to get a big variety of sorted colors. This does not give you enough of each color to sustain you for that long, but they are a good starting point and you'll quickly get the feel for what colors you need the most. You'll want 1000 bead packs of any color you're going to use more than a tiny bit of. The 250 in those sorted packs won't last long.

For Pokemon, I've found the most important colors to keep a big stock of are Black, Dark Grey, Grey, and White. Black is used to outline all of them, the Dark Grey is used for a lot of the details within the sprite, and a lot of Pokemon have White bits which the Grey shades well. There's a lot of Pokemon so I'm using a very big variety of colors beyond those. Their sprites are always shaded, too, so you really need a mix of lighter and darker colors. If you're using Light Blue on a Pokemon's body, you'll probably need Dark Blue to shade it, and so on.

I bought a lot on Amazon at first too, but now that I'm getting more into it I've placed a couple big orders to Bakers'KidsCraftsBooks&More on Ebay. It's a little cheaper for 1000 bead packs than Amazon if you're ordering several, and they carry Hama and Nabbi too. This chart is really helpful for figuring out what Hama and Nabbi colors are sufficiently unique from Perler to make them worth purchasing. The downside is that it's a little slower than Amazon, since you have to wait for a combined invoice before you can pay and get them shipped, but it's the cheapest way I've found to get 1000 bead packs of all bead brands.

The square interlocking 29x29 peg boards that other people have mentioned are big enough to fit most Pokemon and smaller sprites on, and you can always link them up for more room. They come with ironing paper and you can also use parchment paper.

I bought these tweezers too. I don't think they're necessary, but they're easier to use than regular tweezers if I have to remove beads that have already been placed. I usually just use my fingers when initially placing beads.

I like these tackle boxes for storage. They have adjustable compartment sizes, so you can make big compartments to dump your 1000 bead packs into. They close very securely and the compartments are flush with the lid, so beads don't mix if you turn it upside down. The only downside is I have seven of them and already have almost filled them up, haha.

Quick edit: All the Pokemon I've made have been based on the small sprites you see in the party, so that's what my color suggestions are geared to.

Here is my setup. The Plano is this one from Amazon. and I put the invaders, towns, and cities in a box I already owned. Putting all of those into the Plano would require an entire row, which you can do by ust bagging any player colors you don’t use regularly, the “reminder tiles” seen in the front/center, as well as the coins if you’ve replaced them with poker chips like I have.

You can always look for Amazon add-on items - free shipping for prime members when you spend $25+ dollars. Some pretty good deals on tools and storage for them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001IW50Y?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E3C3NU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

I strongly reccomend:

1) for the maps: an Expanding File Folder
2) for all the pieces: a couple storage boxes I found 2 of these at goodwill for a couple bucks, but they're $3.19 at amazon, so hardly breaking the bank either.
3) Gloomhaven Helper <--- this will save you so much time in setup, it replaces all of the monster decks with 1 simple tool, for web/pc/android