I don't recall if they were expensive or not but I'm gonna guess that they probably weren't because my family was not wealthy but yet we had a lot of them. here in Vietnam they are prohibitively expensive. That small x-wing? I went back to double-check and yes, it was $60.

No chance my family would have paid anything near that much. I think Lego maybe re-branded themselves and realized that the demand was large enough that they could charge more at the expense of selling fewer units yet still make more money in the process. It's not like they have any competition.