French miniatures company Raging Heroes has generated a lot of buzz with its extremely successful Toughest Girls in the Galaxy Kickstarter campaign to create the first all-female miniatures armies.  Their relatively modest goal of $12,000 US was funded within 30 seconds of the kickoff on June 4, and they had raised over $100,000 in less than an hour.  By the close of funding on July 7, 2,748 backers had pledged $698,548 (that’s an average pledge of $254.20). This makes it the #2 stand-alone (not part of a game) miniatures set Kickstarter of all time (though dwarfed by frontrunner – Reaper’s Bones $3.4 Million, see "Shipping a Kickstarter Smash").

At its conclusion Toughest Girls in the Galaxy had funded three separate fantasy/sci-fi armies: The Jailbird Division, The Kurganovas, and Iron Empire.  Between individual heroines, troop boxes, and artillery, mecha & motorbike figures there were eventually over 100 miniatures created.  Most are planned as 22 mm metal miniatures, but there were several 40-60 mm resin figures planned as well.

Of interest to retailers, Raging Heroes has offered an incentive to backers to cut shipping costs by having their purchases drop shipped to a local retail location, although this requires the retailer to sign up on the Raging Heroes website as a pick-up point.  They promise ‘incentives’ to the retailers as well, but as the fulfillment program is still in planning stages, no details were provided.  Estimated shipment on the Kickstarter site says March 2014.

Raging Heroes has also announced plans on their webpage for two more Kickstarter army projects for 2013: Dark Elves Invasion and Sisters of Eternal Mercy.