I'm picking up 3 PKEs, one for display, one for Halloween, and one to keep as a back up in case one of the others breaks. At the price it's too good to pass up, they go for $400 fully functional like this on ebay.
All things considered I wouldn't put it past Mattel to be able to make a functioning Pack, honestly how much more difficult could it be then this, by comparison, the pack wouldn't need servos and motors for movements, just the lights and sounds. The pack would likely be mostly plastic but if it looked good enough I wouldn't care at all.
And I'm not saying it'd be as nice as the packs on ebay that are $2500 but if they can cast the shell and the wand, it really isn't anywhere near as difficult as I think your making it out. When I heard they were doing the PKE I laughed, its mattel, but look at that thing.
I could see them being able to do it for $500 and selling plenty, these aren't mass produced items as you call them, they are specifically designed to be sold to collectors online so why not.
Hell I can guarentee if they could pull it off in that price range, you'd see plenty of the hardcore ghost heads buying 4 of them.
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