We've already seen Legendary Monsters on Kickstarter, and even interviewed their creator, but after a failed initial launch, the monsters have returned to Kickstarter all aglow with a more reasonable goal.

With a hefty $350,000 target on Richard T. Broadwater's last Kickstarter campaign for his indie Legendary Monsters line, most people assumed it was destined for failure. And they were mostly right. Legendary Monsters 1.0 fell far short of its goal, but Richard T. Broadwater has already returned to Kickstarter with a massively reduced overall financial goal (now $25,000 instead of $350,000) and a big change to his lineup. Welcome to Legendary Monsters 2.0!

The four monsters (Chupacabra, Jersey Devil, Missouri Monster, and Mothman) remain the same, but there are now glow-in-the-dark versions of each figure included in the pledge options. As a Missouri resident, I'll admit I've never heard of a glowing monster roaming the streets of St. Louis, but I'm still a sucker for a cool action figure gimmick! And spooky figures like these are a natural fit for such a feature.

Because production costs were cited for the prohibitive financial goal last time around, some folks might reasonably wonder how Legendary Monsters could be produced at less than a tenth the cost without reducing the quality or compromising somewhere on the production side. And that's a fair question Broadwater addresses right at the beginning of his new Kickstarter pitch, claiming to "have streamlined our toy line and worked out a deal with a model shop right here in the United States!"

As a veteran of the industry, I don't doubt Richard's relationships and ability to solve production problems. Thanks to those efforts, the reduced goal, and the exciting new glowing figures, I think Legendary Monsters might just succeed this time around. The new project just went live and it's already raised nearly $5,000, putting it near the 20% mark with over 30 days remaining.

If you have any interest in this creative new line, or just want to support independent action figure manufacturers in general, I suggest making a pledge to Legendary Monsters on Kickstarter as soon as you can.