Weird and wonderful projects funded by Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform based in the United States for a wide variety of projects, from technological marvels to unusual creations.

Since its inception in 2009, the site reportedly has received over $1 billion in pledges from 5.7 million donors and 135,000 projects have been funded. Of those projects, there have been some undeniably wacky ones that have somehow reached their funding goal, including a rap album about Doctor Who, combat kitchenware and a 50 foot electromechanical serpent.

The Vegan Zombie Cookbook is a graphic novel style cookbook with 'killer recipes' that was funded through Kickstarter.

John Tedd and Chris Cooney are behind the cookbook and The Vegan Zombie YouTube cooking show, that combines vegan recipes with tidbits about surviving a zombie apocalypse.

The juxtaposition of genres and unique concept caught the attention of viewers, bringing backers to the project. The cookbook had a goal of $18,500 and finished up with $43,572 and a total of 1,273 backers.

Back in 2011, Kickstarter enabled a giant bronze statue of cyborg crimefighter RoboCop to be erected in Detroit.

Peter Weller, the star of the original RoboCop, was one of the 2,718 backers, who collectively raised $67,436 for the statue.

Fred Barton Productions, who create studio licenced celebrity robotic replicas, stepped in to help the Imagination Station team behind the kickstarter to create the statue in a likeness of the original character. The bronze Robocop now resides in Wayne State University's TechTown campus.

Slightly less wacky but definitely a successfully funded project was the Veronica Mars Movie. The film bypassed its initial goal of $2,000,000 and raised $5,702,153 from 91,586 backers.

This is the highest number of backers ever on a Kickstarter project. The film was also the fastest to reach $2 million and the third highest funded project in Kickstarter history.

Rob Thomas, creator of the show, along with Kirsten Bell, star of the original show, decided to turn to Kickstarter when Warner Bros opted to not fund the project. Following the success of the Kickstarter, the original cast and much of the crew made the film which has been released to positive reviews.