Not only did Warpo, the makers of the prospective “Legends of Cthulhu” retro-style action figure line, reach their minimum funding goal, they did it in three days.
See, I wasn’t the only one who thought this figure was awesome!
Keep an eye on their Kickstarter – stretch goals (which may include other product announcements) are due to be revealed soon. But what convinced everyone to part ways with their money for the greater good of Cthulhu? The answer may be simple: the visual presentation and support for this was pitch-perfect.
One of the highlights of their Kickstarter page were these mocked-up “wish book” pages, as if the Legends of Cthulhu figures had somehow fallen through a fissure in time from the 1981 JC Penney Christmas catalog. (How convincing are the pages? Look close – they even included the obligatory bleed-through printing from the other side of the page. If you, like me, ever wore out the toy section of one of these catalogs, you know that’s the mark of authenticity. 😆 )
The packaging is also ridiculously vintage, complete with hand-painted artwork which, as always with toy packaging, depicts the characters in poses that the actual toys can’t possibly match! (As a retired kid, allow me to explain that this was also part of the charm: you simply filled in the gaps with your imagination.)
These guys knew how to make a product, knew how to make a product that others like themselves would want, and knew how to package their funding drive so it would ring absolutely true to that audience. Bravo. (This is also why I totally would’ve sprung, if I were financially able, for the $220 level that gets you two full sets of the figures. Because one set would stay in that packaging forever because it’s so perfectly executed.)
When I was a kid and I was obsessing over some new Star Wars item or other in the latest Sears or JC Penney catalog, I’d end up cutting that part of the page out and taping it to my wall. This, as it turns out, was the dumbest thing I could possibly do – my parents, going through the catalogs to see if I’d merely circled anything, would find that I’d cut whole chunks out of the pages, so the information they were looking for was precisely the information that was missing. I probably owe so many pairs of socks to my own stupidity growing up. The thing was, I enjoyed looking at the photos, the packaging, and how it was all put together. I truly get the feeling that the Legends of Cthulhu figures were put together by a bunch of guys who did the exact same thing.
Some things never change… and never should. Here’s to ya, lads.
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