>>7242228It's an unconfirmed, and apparently fuzzy memory now, story of how the scale was chosen.
I think Toy Fare had the story back in the 90s, and the head of the Star Wars line held his fingers apart to show how big he wanted them and one of the designers told him not to move so he could bring a ruler to measure them.
But it's just a story, because all they really did back then was take Fischer Price's Adventure Team figures and customize them to look like Star wars characters.
1:18 scale figures existed since before the 70s.