I don't think that anyone is goint to even potentially  make enough money off of this for it to be a practical issue for some years yet. At the low end, for a figure to become a big seller usually requires a tie-in with a film etc., so that's pretty much out. Creating a unique new figure that could compete with the gazillion made in PRC plastic things seems far fetched. At  the high end, you would need both artistic excellence and a high quality castine to get collectors to pony up enough to mske a profit. For the most part, I think this will remain as Sam said, a vanity type thing for a while. There are always exceptions that prove the rulu. I suppose someone could create a poignant fallen runner figure and market it as a memorial to the Boston bombing tragedy, something like that that caught people's imaginations and took off for awhile, but again, that's an exception.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken