One aspect of lacking perspective is licensing costs.
I'm used to receiving much higher quality military figures that cost a fair bit less, but there was no licensing involved. Same with third party bootlegs.
A chunk of the $265 would've been Mondo's debt to the license holder.
It's tough to weigh up the number of parts between an average military set and MacReady, because you get the two things. While the dog is largely a simple sculpt, lacking fine detail or paintwork, the spider is more intricate with its jointed legs.
Mondo cut corners, which is something certain other companies wouldn't do, because they respect the source too much (e.g., LIM Toys, but they don't pay licensing fees). The jacket is a disgrace when coupled with a figure the size of MacReady. It's a match you'd more expect from a very low end 12" figure aimed at kids young enough not to bother.
Even the spider, as good as it is, had a rushed paint job that didn't differentiate between hair and skin.
I don't know whether Mondo really thought they'd done enough, or that they couldn't afford to do any more due to the profit margin they were left with.
It's an odd one. Star Ace is often used as a benchmark for low quality, yet with MacReady some parts were better and some even worse.
It could also be that Mondo is accustomed to a different target audience, who aren't aware that higher quality in 1/6 is the standard nowadays.
But, again, it's MacReady, so we take what we're given from a company who isn't as established in quality 1/6, and we work with it the best we can.
Any port in a storm. It's been blowing a gale since 1982 with no sight of a licensed 1/6 figure until now. And he's not as bad as we was yesterday.
