Vulkan He'stan
Vulkan He'stan is the Forgefather of the Salamanders chapter of Space Marines, once the Captain of the Fourth Company. He should not be confused with Vulkan, the Primarch of the Salamanders; He'stan used to have a different first name, but he gave it up for Vulkan's when he became the Forgefather.
Part of his duty as Forgefather is to seek the artifacts that Vulkan made and scattered throughout the galaxy. In particular, four remain to be found: the Engine of Woe, the Obsidian Chariot, the Unbound Flame, and the Song of Entropy. His task would be made slightly easier if anyone alive knew what these were, but apparently, Vulkan only left the names. (Though we now know the Unbound Flame is in fact the casket holding the possibly-dead body of Primarch Vulkan.)
Fortunately, He'stan wears three of the recovered relics to help him on his way: the Gauntlet of the Forge (which has a built-in heavy flamer), Kesare's Mantle (which gives him a 3++ invulnerable save), and the Spear of Vulkan, a master-crafted relic blade.
Tabletop
In addition to having the statline of a Brother-Captain (with a 2+/3++ instead of a 3+ armor save) and all his tricked-out wargear, Vulkan He'stan confers a great advantage on the army that he leads: all meltaguns and multi-meltas become twin-linked Master-crafted. For this reason (not to mention being one of the Salamanders, and therefore one of the few genuinely good guys in the Warhammer 40,000 universe), he is a popular choice to lead Space Marine armies.
A common strategy is to field a list full of Meltas, Combi-Meltas, Flamers, and combi-flamers packed into Drop pods when using him. This is because using a melta becomes a lot more reliable when using Vulkan He'Stan, meaning you can count on the meltas to at least hit (and we all know what happens when a meltagun hits). Also of note is that he makes stock dreadnoughts incredibly efficient when used in a drop pod. If you upgrade the dreadnought to venerable, you literally have a 2% chance of missing the target. Great for when you absolutely have to kill that pesky Land Raider.
Another thing of note is that despite his army buffing prowess (being the biggest reason most people take him), he's got great prowess of his own. While having "only" the stat-line of a Captain, he's actually a steal in terms of points. A Salamanders captain with a 2+/3++, heavy flamer, digital weapons and a (master crafted for free, since salamanders) Relic Blade costs 170 points. This means master crafting every meltagun in your army costs only 20 points.
There is one question which has caused some discussion concering the melta buff rule. As the rule states that meltaguns, multimeltas and so on get upgraded to Master-Crafted, when it came to Combi-Melta's, people are not sure if the buff affects the Bolter profile of the Combi-Melta. As the Combi-Melta is described as becoming MC, if you go RAW, then it should also include the Bolter profile. If this is the case, then you're also giving your regular ol' Bolter a re-roll. This makes it even more useful, as your dudes get better hit % for the majority of your shooting with the combi-. This has been clarified in 7th edition stating that the master craft rule only applies when firing the melta attack from the combi-melta.
Furthermore, remember you can Master-Craft He'stans' Boltpistol if you want. Assuming you don't take any other characters. Every little helps! The salamander chapter tactics changed in 7th edition, now stating that each character can upgrade a weapon to master craft for free. So you can upgrade his pistol, and give all your sergeants a master craft weapon.