Top 10 Craziest Crowdfunding Projects

According to the Bible, back in the day Jesus managed to feed 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread (and two fish!) Now every Panini or toast-based snack you eat can be blessed with the spirit – and the face! – of the Son of God. This Kickstarter project is based around a relatively simple sandwich press that required a modest $25,000 to bring into production. The only new “ingredient” it really bring to the table, however, is Jesus’ face imprinted on your bread slices, but it’s all in the hopes of bringing some joy to family, friends or even your church group. How does the final product taste? Heavenly!

Never has getting rid of insects seemed so badass! This fly-killing weapon works as a miniature shotgun to “humanely” dispose of small pests around the home, and it leaves only a small pile of table salt and the intact carcass of the multi-legged or winged home invader in its crosshairs. After its crowdfunding success, this insect eradication device has spawned a selection of other products to supplement your household hunt for various insect enemies. Honestly, we’re bugging out.

Loyal fans’ dreams were turned into reality – sorta – when they were given the opportunity to send a replica of Doctor Who’s wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey spaceship into Low Earth Orbit. Although the project has hit a number of snags and has still yet to launch, it remains an incredibly ambitious idea to get the TARDIS as far out of the atmosphere as the International Space Station. Depending on how much you pledge, you could have your name and a personalized message saved to the hard drive of the replica. And just think about it: this artifact will likely last long after you leave this Earth. However, the project got going in 2013, and as of early 2016 the Kickstarter site for the campaign hadn’t been updated in a while… So we may have to achieve immortality another way.

This space simulation video game originally asked for just $500,000 during its campaign, but as of early 2016, it has sourced over $100 million. As more and more money is thrown into its production, the expectations rise for the project, which promises to deliver a galactic experience on a scale that has never before been created. It’s claimed that you will receive almost unlimited freedom to determine the direction of your adventure as you transition between first-person space combat and fighting and detailed mining and trading systems. While the alpha release of the first module of gameplay was promising, the full game has a lot of promises to fulfill.

In an admirable humanitarian effort to aid the struggling nation of Greece, nearly €2 million were donated towards a goal of €1.6 billion on IndieGoGo. Although the Greek Bailout Fund failed in its goal, with the €2 million constituting 0% of the total required, a second project called the Greek Crowdfund was started that did not require the refund of any money committed. This second campaign raised close to €300,000 to help charities in Greece secure jobs for citizens of the country. The problems in Greece persist today, but these campaigns perfectly demonstrate the impact people can have when they come together to help others.

On the surface, this may seem like a novel idea for a tourist attraction. But its benefits reach beyond that: it could also be crucial for cleaning the waters around the Big Apple. +POOL acts as a giant filtration system to sterilize the liquid around you to make a totally safe pool that is available to all sorts of different swimmers. Your little contribution can buy you a tile that will go towards building the pool, while your name will forever be part of incredibly important scientific research that will hopefully significantly improve the environment of the city.

Over $2 million has been sourced for a plan that, if put into place, could light up and heat roads to create a far safer experience for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Even though there have been a number of claims from backers that the whole idea is a scam, these solar panel roadways have gained interest from councils and road authorities convinced by the legitimacy of the project. If the engineering kinks can be worked out, this could be the beginning of a whole new era of eco-friendly energy that has the potential to power the world.

You can already walk around the Hobbiton village movie set, but how’d you like to live and work in the capital of the Kingdom of Gondor? That’s what a group of architects were proposing to build for a small fee of £1.85 billion or approximately $2.9 billion. Perhaps understandably, the campaign came nowhere close to its goal - though it did raise over £85,000 - which means your dream of becoming a Lord or Lady of Minas Tirith will likely never be realized. Though the people behind the project fully admitted that it had "virtually no chance of succeeding," had "Realise Minas Tirith" reached its gargantuan target, it surely could’ve been a fully functioning tourist attraction and home to hundreds of Middle-earth enthusiasts everywhere.

One of the biggest porn sites on the web, PornHub has been surprisingly active in diversifying their business: they’ve run a breast cancer awareness campaign and even initiated a program that will see over 15,000 trees planted. This particular project, however, would not only have been the first ever sex tape shot in space, but also claimed to be valuable to science to assess how certain appendages operate in zero gravity. It sadly fell well short of its $3.4 million target, but we still expect to see much more from the adult site in the future.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
Lionel Richie’s Head – Bestival 2013
Rampage 3 – No Mercy!
Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn
World’s Largest Jockstrap

A mere 10 bucks was the asking price to create a modest potato salad through Kickstarter. But it snowballed into a viral sensation that included a potato salad party, recipe book and, of course, the aforementioned salad. A similar project involving a chicken burrito saw one man make enough cash to graph how delicious it is to eat the Mexican treat while skydiving. The potato salad still eclipsed that in terms of money made though – earning over $55,000 – so it stands as the ultimate joke-turned-crowdfunding success story!

Do you agree with our list? Which bizarre crowdfunding ideas did you throw your money towards? For more weird and wonderful top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.