When the mind-gnawing cosmic horror of man’s pitiful existence in a meaningless cosmos and the dreadful spectacle of the howling void become too much for your feeble mammalian intellect, o puny humans, it’s time to seek solace by pushing around some dinky little plastic figurines. Yes, courtesy of mobs of drooling worshippers on Kickstarter, collectibles and toy company Warpo has engendered the Legends of Cthulhu action figures to threaten mortal sanity and the integrity of space-time in mom’s basements and mancaves everywhere.
According to the Warpo release, “Legends of Cthulhu are the first action figures based on the world of H.P. Lovecraft, and include The Deep One, The Professor, The Cultist, and the Spawn of Cthulhu himself, each a 3.75”, retro-styled action figure, sold separately.” Warpo originally launched the Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of the figures in mid-2014, comfortably clearing its $60,000 target with $131,814 raised in total.
The Cthulhu Mythos has seen plenty of figures before, mostly produced for use with the Call of Cthulhu RPG, but I assume the unique selling point here is that Warpo’s figures have moveable arms (well, limbs … tentacles … claws … talons … unnameable appendages… ), and can hold (grasp/throttle/engulf) accessories and objects in them. There’s no indication yet when more figures will be launched to join the initial four, but I’m sure cultish disciples of all things Cthulhu will be waiting with baited breath (charnel stench/gaseous effusion/mephitic vapor…)
Lines of figurines based on Henry James novels and Jack Kerouac travelogs are still nowhere in sight, alas. Meanwhile, H.P. Lovecraft remains one of the few writers to enjoy simultaneous literary acclaim and … well … total nerd cred, dude.
