RoboCop is finally watching over Detroit, and it only took about fifteen years, a snowstorm, a tweet from a “random dude in Massachusetts,” and a whole lot of bronze. The 11-foot cybernetic lawman now stands tall at 3434 Russell Street in Eastern Market, staring down anyone thinking about jaywalking near Mack Avenue.
Back in 2011, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing asked the internet for ideas to improve the city. Someone using the handle @MT replied: “Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & RoboCop would kick Rocky’s butt. He’s a GREAT ambassador for Detroit.” Bing shot the idea down with a polite “There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop,” but fans don’t back off that easily.
Graphic designer and filmmaker Brandon Walley ran with the joke, launching a Kickstarter with his friends at Imagination Station. Nearly 3,000 people threw in cash, raising $67,436 in six days. One donor even tossed in $25,000 (OmniCorp, is that you?). Actor Peter Weller joined the fun too, joking in a Funny or Die video that RoboCop wasn’t “silly.”
The money went to Detroit sculptor Giorgio Gikas and his team at Venus Bronze Works, who tracked down the original Rob Bottin armor in Houston, 3-D scanned it, scaled it up, and poured the bronze. This was a full-time, no-corners-cut RoboCop. Gikas even battled colon cancer during the process but kept going.
Even after the statue was completed, everything slowed to a crawl. Location issues. Legal negotiations with MGM, the rights-holder. Insurance headaches. New pedestals. New delays. At one point, the statue leaned too far back and needed a torso shave. But contracts required RoboCop to be installed before the end of 2025, so failure wasn’t an option.
Finally, on Wednesday, December 3rd, cranes lifted the 3,500-pound bronze officer into place outside the Free Age video production studio. Walley watched the four-hour process and said it felt like “triumph” and “relief.” People lined up in the freezing cold to snap pictures before the plaque was even ready. A QR code will eventually connect visitors to charity organizations like Forgotten Harvest and Eastern Market because RoboCop gives back to the community.
The total cost has climbed toward $260,000, after legal fees and foundation work. But Detroit now has something Philadelphia can’t brag about: a crime-fighting cyborg made of nearly two tons of metal, guarding a mini-park in front of a former firehouse.
Walley never imagined a flippant Twitter exchange would lead to a massive public monument, but here we are. RoboCop, the fictional protector who once saved a dystopian Detroit from corrupt corporations, now stands as a very real symbol of Detroit’s ability to finish what it starts.
Dead or alive, the RoboCop statue is patrolling Eastern Market.
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