Plans for a robocop statue in Detroit

Delirium

Earlier this week Detroit Mayor Dave Bing took to Twitter to tell the world the bad news. "There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop," he tweeted.


A suggestion submitted to an Internet campaign soliciting ideas to fix the ailing city, the Robocop statue was dead in the water — at least as far as local government was concerned.


So citizens took it upon themselves to ensure that like Minneapolis with its hat-tossing "Mary Richards" shrine, Milwaukee with its "Fonzie" effigy and Philadelphia with its "Rocky" statue, Detroit too would erect its own homage to its presence in pop culture.


From its humble start just a few days ago as Detroit resident John Leonard's "Build a statue of RoboCop in Detroit," Facebook page, to the "Detroit Needs A Robocop Statue" Kickstarter project, the future of this half-cop, half-machine, all-statue commemoration of the 1987 sci-fi movie starring Peter Weller is almost assured.


Kickstarter is a fundraising platform for independent profit and non-profit projects to which anyone can contribute. As with "Detroit Needs A Robocop Statue," a project is posted on the site, with a goal amount to be raised — in the case of Robocop it’s $50,000. Contributors lock in their donations via Amazon.com or other payment means, but aren’t charged until all the money is raised and the project goes through.


"Robocop has become a very suitable icon to represent Detroit, and deserves a place

in this city's history," reads the original Robocop Facebook post. "As Detroit continues to redefine itself into the 21st century — please help to truly make this the coolest city on earth."


Detroit’s Imagination Station, a nonprofit group charged with cleaning up Detroit’s blighted areas, pledged Roosevelt Park as the Robocop statue’s future beat, where he will follow his prime directive to "serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the awesome."


With nearly 560 backers and more than $12,000 raised toward the $50,000 goal on the first day of a funding drive that ends March 26, the Robocop statue is quickly on its way to becoming a reality. Donate just $1 to "Detroit Needs A Robocop Statue," and in return, you’ll receive bragging rights your grandkids can share for generations to come.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/11/6034591-detroit-robocop-statue-could-be-reality-thanks-to-internet

ToniTuddle

AWESOME!

\o/


I'd go see that...if I happened to ever be in Detrotter!

micayla

That is awesome! I would travel to Detroit just to see that statue:D

Kess73

Cool idea.


Better than the Burger King statue in Limerick.:D

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Shiminay

I was talking to someone about this tonight. I was told they needed $50,000 and that one individual put $25,000 into the pot so it seemed like a much more likely prospect.

We then made our favourite Robocop poses and catchprases for the statue to say as we walked past

FewFew

Motown