July’s Cool Thing: The Hero Project

With the arrival of San Diego Comic-Con this week, it’s a busy time for action figure collectors. We’re about to endure a crushing wave of news and announcements that often takes a few weeks to process. But for those of you unable to attend the convention and already tired of the hype, July has more to offer. Specifically, you need to take a look at the new Kickstarter project by the Go, Go, Dynamo folks: The Hero Project – Action Figures of World Cultural Heroes.

I’m officially naming it July’s Cool Thing (another new monthly feature here). The details of the project can be found at the above link, but for those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it’s a crowd-funding site designed to help people launch products using pre-orders. The Hero Project is one of the few action figure lines being introduced on Kickstarter, and it’s probably the one with the most potential.

Go, Go, Dynamo intends to create a line of figures centered on cultural and mythical heroes. Based on the teaser images and prototypes they’ve shown so far, it looks like a line that could be wildly successful and continue for a long time. They are extremely articulated, well sculpted, and a nice scale. The first figure, and the one upon which pre-orders are based, is Hindu avatar Rama. They’ve also teased the likes of Egyptian God Ra and even American folk-lore hero John Henry. This is an untapped set of characters and a great idea.

Check out their Kickstarter page and support the line, or it won’t happen. I personally can’t wait for a John Henry action figure.