Today is Art Day adds science giants Einstein, Tesla, Da Vinci to its historical action figures line

Today is Art Day, which launched in 2014 as an Instagram/Twitter/Facebook online social media community for art history aficionados before expanding into an action figure supplier focusing on great artists, is expanding its catalog further to include scientists and literary heroes.

At last week’s winter NY NOW home/lifestyle/gift market trade show at New York’s Javits Center, founder/CEO David Beaulieu showcased the first entries of Today is Art Day’s The Historical Figures collection, to go with its Art History Heroes set of nine famous artist action figures (Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, Johannes Vermeer, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh) that he introduced at NY NOW last year.

Like the Art History Heroes figures, the new Historical Figures—Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla--stand five inches tall and list 10 interesting and fun facts about the character on the packaging. They’re also properly accessorized: the Einstein holds a pipe or violin, Curie has a beaker, and Tesla, a lightbulb.

The new figures also come with the Historical Figures Augmented Reality App allowing exploration, via smartphone or tablet, of a virtual room (Einstein’s lecture hall, Curie’s laboratory and Tesla’s experimental station), recreated according to archival images and featuring clickable objects that then reveal stories about the scientists and their historical contributions.

“We’ve been working on the idea of branching out from art history and into other themes for a while,” said Beaulieu. “For us, science was the perfect way to venture into other chapters of our history—and will allow us to explore more themes in the future.”

In fact, a William Shakespeare action figure is set for May release, and will have in hand poor Yorick’s skull.