>>10182883>>10183240>>10183254In the majority of cases, a 7" figure doesn't cost more to make than a 6" figure. The amount of extra plastic used is negligible.
McFarlane himself was rather proud of being able to fit this guy in the normal packaging, which insinuates they can produce something even larger (for $19.99), but would not be able to ship it as is, because of space limitations set up by vendors and even their own cases (cardboard boxes the waves are shipped in).
It's been known for over 2 decades (Diamond and DCD) that the size increase in collector toys is to give collectors extra value, in the form of bigger = more detail visible. Since collector toys are usually $2-5 more than normal mass market toys, that larger size and extra weight makes people feel like they're getting their money's worth. The actual reason for being 10-25% more expensive was because of paint apps they'd use. QC is usually included with hte manufacturing process, as long as there's no rush and weren't trying to keep shit under budget (ie, factory given a fair price).
Anyway, as someone said, what costs more money is the amount of molds required. So pictured figure also can be made with the same amount of molds a 6" figure is made with. If the figure needed more pieces to be molded (ie, having more limbs or extra articulation that requires seperate pieces), it would likely require more molds. A 5 PoA figure only requires the head, arms, legs, and chest to be molded. Whereas a 30-40PoA figure requires the head, forearm, hands, shoulder, thigh, shin, foot, toes, etc etc etc. Each of these pieces requires a channel for plastic to run into the mold, so you can't just closely fit each piece into a single mold.
Long story short, something with more articulation would cost more than something with less articulation. So you can easily get a good estimate of cost just by counting each little piece you can take off your toys.