I'm actually really surprised at this. With many of us getting up in age, I would've thought the wife (or sig other) would be a big force in curbing collections to be smaller, yet somehow these companies keep churning out stuff that's bigger and bigger. And while they do look super cool, I just don't know why they're getting so damn big! I know the credo is bigger is better for many (aka that's what she said), but when a statue is getting at the cost of rent for a NY apartment, I have to stop and question that a bit. Me personally, I'm amazed when a company can cram a lot of detail into something that fits on a desk! Anybody can detail something as big as the Hulk. Try doing that on a grain of rice! I'm not telling you guys what to do. Obviously you guys have mucho cash and unlimited space (can I have your job?) so buy whatever. Enjoy. I'm just flippin surprised is all.
As talked a little about previously, I believe one of the driving forces to 1/3 scale is higher profit levels for the companies producing them.
They are charging substantially more than 1/4 scale statues (and those aren't being sold at cost obviously....), often around double the price and while I'd admit I have no visibility to their costs, I just can't see the costs of production being anything remotely approaching double.
Companies are also doing it to get around exclusive licenses.
The big boys only used to buy licenses for the scales they were producing (generally 1/6 articulated) but after Enterbay found the loophole and started producing 1/4 scale articulated figures, license rights started getting signed for all formats in 1/6 and 1/4.
So the next step .....1/3 !!
....see Blitzway's 1/3 scale Bruce Lee's which did quite well for them.