Crowdfunded Robocop statue to be erected in Detroit

A life-size statue of Robocop, which was paid for in a crowdfunding campaign, is to be erected in the city of Detroit.

The statue, which has been cast in bronze and stands at a hulking 10 feet, will be installed at the Michigan Science Center in the coming weeks.

“We just signed the paperwork with the Michigan Science Center today who will be showing off pieces of the statue at a private event later this week,” read a post from ‘Team Robo’.

“Detroit is an amazing city. We hope that this statue introduces more of you to it, and we hope that by being at the Science Center it helps inspire more people and more youth to get involved in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). And, frankly, to mix STEM skills with right-brained creativity.”

“We think this is a perfect fit,” Brendan Walley of Imagination Station, the group behind the statue, told the Detroit Free Press.

“It could have been great at a number of places. But this is really a match made in heaven.”

Tonya Matthews, the CEO of the center said that it is ‘honoured to be the host site for this amazing piece of art’.

“At the Science Center, we aim to inspire curious minds of all ages with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and we think RoboCop will remind us of the power of STEM and the resurgence of Detroit,” she added.

A date for the official unveiling will be forthcoming.

It’s been some time since the original fund was created, back in 2011, when it raised $67,000 to make the statue.

Director Paul Verhoeven set his classic 1987 action movie in Detroit, with Peter Weller playing Alex Murphy, a policeman gunned down by a drug gang who is then brought back from the brink of death in an experiment to create the first robot law enforcer.

Asked what he thought about the statue in 2011, Verhoeven said: “Perhaps I should see it as my most important contribution as a Dutchman to American culture.”

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