For the past few weeks or so there’s been a debate raging on and on about whether or not bigger, more well-known names and titles should be using the crowd funding website Kickstarter to try and find help with financing their next project.

It began when Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas took to the site for help in making a movie based on his cancelled show, a movie that had been attempted numerous times and failed all of them. Kickstarter was the last resort, and it came through overwhelmingly as fans of the show chipped in and helped the project reach its $2 million goal easily. By the time the campaign was said and done, $5.7 million had been raised for the movie, and a new doorway was opened wide for filmmakers and others.

Not many gave a second thought to the Veronica Mars movie turning to Kickstarter for help; it wasn’t until recently that the debate truly ignited when Zach Braff, the star of the hit sitcom Scrubs and writer/director/producer/star of Garden State, decided to see if Kickstarter could help him make his follow-up to Garden State, Wish I Was Here. Not only did the movie also quickly achieve its $2 million goal, but it ignited quite the firestorm as many argued the merits of the successful or wealthy asking regular folks to pay for their projects to happen.

This week, Dropbox acquires superstar app Mailbox, Google shuts down Reader (and the internet goes berserk), Netflix goes social, Samsung launches the S4 and Apple goes on the defensive, and Veronica Mars is back…thanks to Kickstarter.

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The $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel today is a Veronica Mars-themed shirt called “Greetings from Neptune” by oneshoeoff.

The shirt went on sale at RIPT today, Thursday, March 21, 2013, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

The t-shirt is available in men’s (through 3XL), women’s, and youth sizes for $10 each in navy blue. Kids sizes are $10 (Girls, Toddlers, and Onesies in navy blue); Hoodies for $38 (in Men/Unisex sizes in navy blue). You can also get the design on coasters for $25; iphone (4/4s) cases for $18; and prints (18″x24″) for $20.

Veronica Mars is one of those television series that has a small, but vocal fanbase. If you bring the long-cancelled show up to a hardcore fan, you may as well grab a cup of coffee (or a stiff drink depending on the fan) and cop a squat because the conversation is going to be long and one-sided. They are like a smaller version of Firefly fans, but more on that later. The show’s creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell have been desperate to revive the show in feature film form basically since it was cancelled after it initial three-year run. Warner Brothers never believed there was enough of a following for the series to merit the big budget studio affair that comes with the creation of a feature film. Finally, Thomas was able to get the WB to agree to foot the bill for a limited theatrical run, the marketing of the film, and the distribution of the film in digital form (VOD, iTunes), if he could come up with the shooting budget.

Bell and Thomas crafted a film with a minisule $2 million budget. Then they put it to the fans on Kickstarter to make the movie happen. The goal was to get the full film budget in 30 days. The full $2 million was accumulated via Kickstarter in just under 10 hours. Rewards for those who donated were many, starting from updates during production and a copy of the script on the day the movie premieres for just a $10 donation all the way up to a speaking role in the film for a $10,000 donation. So the money is in place and plans to go into production are underway. The movie will be shot this summer and have a limited theatrical release in early 2014 before heading to digital distribution.

A movie version of the hit TV show Veronica Mars has been in the works for a long, long time now, with no luck finding a way to make it a reality.

And so creator Rob Thomas turned to the same place so many others have turned: Kickstarter.

Crowdfunding has become the answer for many to make the games and movies and other things they’ve not been able to make otherwise, and Veronica Mars is without question the biggest title to give the website a try. Thomas also set the biggest goal that’s ever been set for a movie Kickstarter campaign—a whopping $2 million—which really put to the test just how useful crowdfunding could be…and passed in stunning fashion.