Pretty sure they originally did all that work in the hopes of getting likeness approval for Apone... but when that fell through, they used the parts for Windrix instead. Kinda like making lemons from lemonade. Since the likeness rights didn't happen, take those new body parts they had ready to go and apply them to a good cause.
Given the expense of tooling up new moulds, it seems unlikely NECA would be willing to spend all that money unless they they actually had the likeness rights, but I guess we'll find out for certain eventually.
...yes, but how many people would buy a fake marine?
This is a fake Marine:
I wouldn't, and I'm not sure how many will apart from those who want an army
We'll never know till they try...
...and don't discount the army-builders, either.
I dunno, not a line I follow (but did as a child in the 80s, just didn't keep that one going)
I think there can certainly be over-saturation with main characters though. You see it with Star Wars aswell, ****ing Darth Vaders out the wazoo, even kids only need so many of him. I do feel it can choke a line to death when you see nothing but rows and rows of the same damn character on the shelf. There must be a happy medium or, if there isn't one to be had, then the line needs to take a break I suppose. I hope we're not there yet with the Alien and Terminator franchises.
Well, call me crazy, but I do think that there's a bias against the Marines on NECA's part. I love what we've got thus far (even if I've had to chop up multiple figures and glue them back together to fix some of the design choices NECA's made), but it does seem rather like the USCM figures are getting treated as an afterthought. I mean, they didn't even bother to get the camouflage pattern on Hudson's helmet screen-accurate, to mention only the most obvious example of sloppiness on their part. VLAGAS also noted up-thread that they apparently stated that they wouldn't make the Sentry Guns because they only appear in the extended version of
Aliens, but at the same time, they're releasing a concept version of the original 1979 alien that never appeared in any cut of the film and which only the most hardcore fans have ever heard of (not that I'm complaining; that's probably my favourite "look" for Giger's monster), and taking what must be quite a gamble on retooling the huge and expensive Alien Queen to represent a version from a comic book that's probably just as obscure, if not more so, than the Sentries themselves.
I know I'm probably going to sound like one of those fedora-wearing neckbeards making a stink about a perceived lack of Black Widow or Rey action figures, but I'd like to think that an "Ultimate" Colonial Marine would sell as well as anything else (I'll freely admit to this being my personal Holy Grail for this line). Something like the following:
-Generic young(ish) military-looking headsculpt
-Helmet that
doesn't perch atop the head like some kind of bird's nest
-Alternate helmet with extended IR monocle
-Unmarked armour with a full set of grenades in all the loops (something like "Smith" or "Jones" stenciled on under the collar)
-Knife with sheathe
-VP70 with holster
-Pulse Rifle
-Incinerator
-Ammo Bag
-Medic Bag
-Shoulder Lamp
-Motion tracker
-Extra hands
...and as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a full set of USCM M3 armour from Terry English...
Im not finish yet with my figure. I think theres alot of work to put on it to make it look realy good/ movie like. 
