The Lucas Arts guys saw my post about the cost of the character pack for Xbox 360 version of Lego Star Wars II and wrote to calm my fears.
While the game will feature tons of unlockable characters from the original trilogy, you will have to buy a pack to get the 50 or so prequel characters for the game.
I saw your recent post about LEGO Star Wars II on Kotaku and wanted to clarify the situation with characters. There is indeed a Marketplace fee to purchase all of the 50-plus prequel characters on the 360 version, but it's a nominal one -- 200 points, or about $2.50. So that's basically a nickel per character. The characters are not quite available yet, but I'm told it will be soon. I'll keep you posted.
Less than $3 I can handle, good move LA.