Someone can correct me if I am wrong, as this was the early 90s or so. And some of us saw these figures for 2 for 5 dollars or 3 for 5 dollars at KayBee toy stores all over the country.
IIRC, O'Malley, Hudson and Vasquez did not make it to US markets. Later the molds were reused to make 2 packs for those characters with an alien figure. It was cheaper to just acquire the character license, but not the individual releases/licenses of the actors. Also there were likely no go zones for certain things depending on other agreements in place for other merchandise. Last factor was Kenner would want to, if it could, reuse accessories or concepts from other toy lines. Reduce R&D. Interesting that Vasquez is the only one with a true classic "Pulse Rifle" Had every character had a "staple" like TMNT did with their weapons trees that came with figures, these might have sold better (i.e. I remember the facehugger accessory was inside the Gorilla Alien set when it should have honestly been in all sets) If you gave everyone a pulse rifle, smart gun, facehugger, chest burster and egg, maybe it sells better.
There was a classic 2 pack, with the Predator that was mostly P1 but with a laser rifle, and a warrior Alien from Aliens. It had the most "classic" aesthetic. Of course it was the hardest to find and probably short packed. Had they made more of those sets instead, again, might have sold better. I remember collectors back then affectionately called the Warrior Alien in the 2 pack as "Deion Sanders" LOL. The Alien toys at brick and mortar didn't make a generational leap until Alien Resurrection. The aqua alien and warrior alien that set, IMHO, are still better than some of the NECA ones.
There was so much demand for Aliens stuff back then, but no one was making much of anything.
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