That's a wickedly cool design. Cool enough that some Chinese company is probably going to start knocking it off and selling them for cheap. And when they (or anyone) does, I want one!

To everyone complaining about their investments, I'm sorry but if you thought the money you were "paying" Helix was actually legally binding whatsoever, then KS has failed to convey the bedrock of their platform. It's not you, and it happens to a lot of people. Some people have personally tracked down failed KS campaigners because they turned out to be frauds. But that's really it... there is ZERO legal implications by sending them your money. It's just a vote of confidence in the form of dollars. And get this, either way Kickstarter takes their cut... which is on the order of 8-10% of the total money raised. That's right... for a campaign like this Kickstarter makes somewhere around $226k as soon as the campaign finishes. And then there are chargebacks and all sorts of crap that happens where backers find a way not to pay. And THEN you have to pay taxes, which can take around 40% OF THE REMAINING AFTER FEES.

My point is that Kickstarter campaigns are hard, and just because this failed and you didn't get your money back doesn't mean this guy is bad or a crook or a fraud. It's probably a combination of crappy real-life things that can't be planned for, combined with improper planning, combined with inexperience, combined with a little bit of good ol' bad decisions. The REAL problem is that you didn't know what you were getting yourself into when you hit that "Back this project" button.