I think it's great that you're interested in getting decent equipment from the start rather than getting substandard now and planning to upgrade later.
I just brewed my 9th batch today, so I'm by no means a veteran, but this is the advice I'd give.
1) The capper that came with my starter kit was crap. It survived 7 and a half batches. When I told my LHBS that sold it to me they said they were surprised it even lasted that long. I don't know about other kit cappers, but I'd say invest in a bench capper if you're not going right to kegs.
2) Build some of the equipment yourself, such as the mash-tun and the wort chiller. It's a great way to learn more about your new hobby, it's fun, you will save a few bucks, you can take pride in it and it will get you super-pumped up to finally do your first brew.
3) You can buy a turkey frier, but everyone that owns a blichmann burner, including myself, is super happy with it.
4) Choose the right sized kettle. I do 5-6 gallon batches and am very pleased that I went with a 15 gallon kettle. You 'can' get away with smaller, but it makes it that much more difficult to go and make yourself a sandwich in the middle of a brew. I brewed a batch today that required 8.5 gallons of wort before any boil off was accounted for and I had to keep a careful eye not to have a boil over.
5) I farted around with various cheap brewing thermometers until I put two in my mashtun and found them to be 20 degrees apart. I had no idea which one to believe, if either. Now I have a "thermapen" (search these forums or google it) and know they were both drastically wrong.
The equipment for brewing can be expensive. You can do it on the cheap, but I find that the process is a lot easier, more reliable and I feel a lot more confident with good equipment. It's ultimately up to you to decide in what areas of brewing you want to have the best equipment known to man, and where you can cut corners. For example, I don't own a stir plate (for yeast starters) and really don't feel the need to.
Ask lots of questions on here. I've yet to have an unfriendly response to a question I've posted, and I've asked quite a few 'dumb' questions.
Don't be surprised or hugely disappointed if your first batch doesn't beat the commercial competition hands down (or your second, third, fourth, etc). Some brewers report fantastic results on their first attempt, but for me there's been a heck of a learning curve, and I expect to get better at it.
Good luck, and it's good to hear that the hobby has found you. I'm guessing you're hooked before you've even brewed your first batch. I know I was.
