I don't understand these sort of justifications or the others that people have put out. I don't mean to be argumentative, I just truly don't see how people can say it's worth the price because the body needs to be painted or that it's a unique body or the outfit is intricate, etc. Maybe I'm missing something, but once you forget the height, which alone can't be said to account for the price, I don't see how it's that much more of a unique or demanding project than, say, the Big Chap Alien or the Weathered Skin T-600 or even the Alien Dallas/Kane figures.
I think there's a number of figures in the past have proved that a light-up base, a painted body, intricate clothing, and other things you're pointing to do not equal a greatly increased price tag.
And with the body it's not like they've gone outside of anything they've ever done before - this appears to be simply a taller body that's taken the same approach they have with most bodies today. It's not some wild advancement, it's nothing that seems to have forced them to re-think all they've done before.
Still, I don't think they're charging such a high price because they think people will pay anything for an 'Avatar' figure, I think there's something more to it than that. As I think about it now, I think it's maybe just a matter of increased prices overall, of a calculated new era in pricing. Maybe this is inching us towards a day where $300 is the new $200, and that $170 - 190 is the new low-point. The price of the 'Sucker Punch' figures seem to me to be another unlikely price, another possible example of a change in the pricing approach. Maybe what we have here is the dawn of a new and magical era.
