I've been considering doing the same thing, OP. I do think there's a market for it, however the smaller the production run, the higher it can end up costing. And of course legal issues if you're making a bunch of figures, since you could be considered illegal competition for any company that has the legal rights for the property. I've been considering starting to do my own toys as well, and I figure early on I'd do famous, but public domain characters, like Cthulhu here for example.
I saw someone who made a retro vinyl style toy a few days ago made a thread advertising his work. The consensus here seemed to be that it seemed too expensive, even though others chimed in and said $40 is reasonable for an independent release(website is here, btw
http://www.studiokabuto.bigcartel.com/product/cambrigon-orange-crusher-version-limited-to-25-pieces)
If you're talking about doing single pieces, that could give you more legal leeway. I see lots of people, on places like the Sideshow freaks forum doing custom figures. A lot of that stuff is done by commission. Another thing that may be up your alley, if you can do realistic sculpts, is doing head sculpts in 1/6th scale of popular characters or actors in famous or cult favorite roles. A lot of people are interested in buying, say, a Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry head to place on a 1/6th figure body. If you can cast something like that and make copies to order, that's even better.
Statues are another thing, I think there's probably some buyers, however you're probably better off building a portfolio and seeing who you can take it to who'd be interested in hiring you. Statues of known characters, namely comic/sci-fi stuff, is a densely populated market, and most people are probably going to go for an established company first.
Anyway,good luck!, and I'd love to see more of your work if you have any pics. That Hellboy looks great. Mignola's style is a hard to emulate, especially in real life.
