Four Horsemen’s Ravens reach
63% of funding in one day!

NoisyDvL5

I was out of town this week and unable to get the news about the Four Horsemen’s Raven Kickstarter up on time. Now, I knew I’d get to it once I got back, but what I didn’t know was by the time I did post it the project would be nearly two-thirds funded! And I’m only a day late.

Now, I don’t normally highlight too many Kickstarters here on IAT, but there are a couple reasons I have to point this one out. First, it’s the Four Horsemen. They’re stand-up guys, toy legends, and, hey, if it weren’t for them, there probably wouldn’t even be an IAT. So, they’re kinda important around these parts.

The second reason is much more selfish. You see those two birds up there in the teaser pic? The White Raven & the Owl? Those are two of my most desired Raven variants and they ended up as stretch goals. We’re still impressively 40% on the way to that Owl after one day, so I remain hopeful, but I still gotta spread the word: Noisy wants the Owl. Tell everyone.

Here’s the initial details about the Kickstarter:

FOUR HORSEMEN STUDIO’S GOTHITROPOLIS RAVENS KICKSTARTER

Four Horsemen Studios’ Gothitropolis Ravens Kickstarter is a project to ensure that our Gothitropolis Raven action figure series can go into full production, and this fan favorite group of figures can end up in your hands!

What are these cool figures? The Raven and his compatriots are the newest figures in our Gothitropolis line of highly detailed six inch scaled action figures. The Raven was chosen by fans as the winner of our FANtastic Exclusive project which allows fans to vote on all aspects of our next figure. Our team here have spent hundreds of hours of meticulously sculpting, fabricating, and painting to create the spectacular prototypes for this line. This project is an absolute labor of love for everyone involved here at Four Horsemen Studios.

THE SPECIFICS

These will be approximately 6” tall (which puts them in scale with previous Gothitropolis releases like our Scarabus and the TimeKeeper figures). He has 34 points of articulation. He’s got two sets of interchangeable feet (one set in an open “attack pose” and the second set has a “battle grip” for wielding weapons). He has this detailed scythe/staff weapon and a signature belt loaded with supplies and relics. This figure has an intricate paint scheme that contains hundreds of paint applications.

THE ASSORTMENT

We’ve created 12 prototypes in total here at the studio based largely on fan requests for various species of birds and other fantasy creatures. Each variant features a unique head sculpture, and it’s own gorgeous paint scheme that perfectly reflects the character’s species and theme.

For the initial Kickstarter we are starting with six figures in total. Of course we didn’t want to shut out the possibilities for all 12 figures, so we are offering the remaining 6 figures as stretch goals.

For more details or to sign up, continue to Kickstarter!

NoisyDvL5

27 thoughts on “Four Horsemen’s Ravens reach
63% of funding in one day!”

  1. No one knows how badly I need Minotaur the Duck… I watched that conversation unfold in as close to real time as forums could back in the mid 2000’s… I remember the “calling a duck in a helmet a minotaur” argument being made.

    When Eric told me in february that he was a prototype… I ran over to look and it and damn near sqee’d outloud…

    I need Minotaur the Duck… and he’s just the Kickstarter exclusive… I put my money down, all of you need to as well… I want all these figures being made

    1. represent jedi… even my kids are excited for minotaur. i had to tell them the story yesterday so they knew WHY he’s the coolest most logical toy in the world.

        1. well, on the old fantastic exclusive boards, he became a running joke after one board member described scarabus as illogical because he had a bug-themed name, but goat hooves. he then finished his protest with, “you might as well make a duck with horns and call him minotaur” and we pretty much latched on to that idea and ran with it, partly because it was fantastically absurd, and partially because that guy was a douche and the jests got under his skin…

          as for why the non-fan ex crowd might gravitate towards him, i think he’s a gorgeously executed piece of absurdist art, and there’s definitely a market for that. he’s fun, and fun will get you an awfully far way down the road if it’s well executed.

  2. The rooster is one of my big wants, since it’s so damn ridiculous. And the wings, because they only think less logical than Minotaur the Duck would be Minotaur the duck with black wings.

  3. Wow. After watching the Mattel-shackled Horsemen churn out dozens of MOTUC and DCUC figures, each with their own level of “I wish they’d done *this*…”, it’s sculpts like this that remind you what the Four Horsemen can really do when allowed to cut loose.

  4. Pretty jazzed for this. So much, in fact, I pushed past my dislike of Kickstarter and– for the first time ever– contributed to a project. I gotta have that vulture on my desk.

    And, seriously, I’m going to be upset if the rooster doesn’t get to join him.

  5. Take that, Matty! Look what happens when you announce your entire line-up from the beginning!

    1. not quite entire… there’s a stretch goal secret variant that i’m very intrigued by… but i get your meaning. 🙂

  6. I told some dude walking on the street very sternly, “NOISY WANTS THE OWL.” He didn’t seem to know what I was talking about (the nerve…). Hey, I tried.

    I put it down for the Raven Battle Pack, but the White Raven and the Owl will test my resolve. How does release of the stretch goals work, do you have to put in another bid if it’s reached, or will they just be up for normal sale? I’m a rookie to Kickstarting.

    1. the stretch goals open separately, so in theory, once we get to the 85,000 pledge level (which i admit, prior to seeing today that we’re already 92% of the way there, i was worried we might not hit), a new option would open and they will be available to buy either individually or as a pair, and they would be considered a separate purchase/buy-in than what you already have pledged.

    2. Usually with stretch goals, they actually have prices already before they are even reached. Maybe the horsemen couldn’t figure it out, I don’t know. Generally the stretch goal items have a price. So when they are reached and unlocked you up your pledge by that amount. Then at the end surveys are sent out to all people and they are asked what stretch goal items they would want.

  8. I’m all in!

    I pledged for the full six pack. I figure if I’m going to do this thing I might as well do it right. These guys will look pretty awesome next to The Sorceress atop my Castle GreySkull. Hoping that the other six will join them too.

    1. Years ago, a 4H forum member named T’Challa was upset that Scarabus won the FanEx voting, because Scarabus was a man with goat legs, a tail, and pincers, and not, in fact, a scarab. He said that such an illogical creature was like voting for a duck wearing a horned helmet that called itself the minotaur, which no one would vote for, so everyone there was dumb for having voted for the equally illogical Scarabus. Pretty much everyone on the board thought that the idea of the warrior duck in a horned helmet was awesome, so several board members picked up the idea and ran with it.

      Here’s the story in the 4H’s own words from an expo they attended earlier this year:

      http://www.16bit.com/toyfair2013/toyfair2013-4h-goth/toyfair2013-4h-goth14.jpg

      “T’Challa” was not a man known for carefully choosing his words or thinking out his ideas. He got mad at board members for buying whole sets of the various Fan Ex figures, saying that that meant there’d be no toys left for the general public, and we were creating a insular, incestuous fan community that wouldn’t be able to grow and support the 4H’s work. Nevermind that the 4H sold the figures as sets on their online store, and had said it was much easier and safer to sell the sets than individual figures, so that they could produce the figures in even numbers and not worry about certain variants becoming less popular and them being stuck with unsold stock. Go ask around the 4H forum some time about how we’re all “greedy elitists.” Also, he said that the 4H being able to fund the production of Scarabus without the assistance of various online retailers each picking up a different variant was evidence that the 4H were going under, rather than it signifying the opposite, which is that the 4H were doing so well they no longer needed the financial backing of a dozen different websites to produce each new wave of figures.

      1. Thanks, JamesLynch, for taking the time to explain it to me. I always voted on the Fantastic Exclusive figures, but never was on the boards. Now I kind of want to own what initially just looked like a stupid figure 🙂

  11. Put in a pledge for the Cardinal. Once the stretch goals are reached, I’ll change my pledge to the Quetzalcoatl (and the rooster, once it gets that high).

    This way, I’m still contributing towards the stretch goals, even though the ones I want aren’t “unlocked” yet.

    1. Right now I’m locked in for a Minotaur. I’m hoping that if I can work out the budgeting, I’ll be able to upgrade it to a Minotaur/Raven pack. If I can really bank some coin at Chicago Comic Con, I might even go for a Cardinal.

      But, yeah, my next most wanted after that is the Rooster. He’s almost as silly as Minotaur, without the amusing backstory. It kind of sucks that he’s set at such a high stretch goal, though. I have no doubt the Raven will get funded, but pledging seems to have slowed way down, so I don’t know how many of those stretch goals we’ll for sure be unlocking.

      1. 97% already.
        I’m guessing the “mystery” figure is a Vulture variant. Condor?
        I’d LOVE to get most of these, but right now, it doesn’t look good for me, financially. 🙁
        still wishing the 4h best of luck, as always!

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  15. Glad to see the Kickstarter doing do well for them in only a couple days.

    I think the mystery bird is going to be the Bald Eagle.

  16. I’m a little confused are these going to now be available for sale at storehorsemen for the prices they normally charge?

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