Remember that joke-that-snowballed Kickstarter project to build and install a life-sized bronze statue of Robocop in Detroit? It fell off a lot of people’s radars, but it’s still going on and seems to have entered the home stretch – not only have they officially licensed the image from MGM, the foam version of the final product is now being assembled in Canada so that it can be shipped to Detroit and cast in bronze by a local company.
Still to be decided is exactly where in the city the statue will be installed, though the most likely candidate is a private plot of land owned by Imagination Station, which has been a contributing partner to the project from early on.
I know that a lot of people find this whole project to be in bad taste, i.e. non-Detroit-residing film nerds putting a statue referencing a movie about a crime-ridden future dystopia up in a city currently facing a very real crime-ridden present dystopia; but I say the more the merrier to pop-iconography like this. New York could use a Spider-Man or Ghostbusters statue, while we’re at it…
I'm all for the Spider Man statue
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Ever hear about the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia? I wonder if there are any other similar things out there.
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a creative sculptor could really do something cool with a spiderman statue. imagine having it sitting atop a lamp post in central park hanging some muggers upside down. or maybe perched on the roof of a building like some sort of brightly colored gargoyle. or maybe even sitting in the middle of a steel cable 'web' strung between buildings.
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In my home town in cali all our statues are of hideous modern art so I say let's get us some kick ass movie reference statues like how about an Iron Man statue down in Malibu, OH in Hawaii they have a Steve Magaret statue…although the plack says “Jack Lord” we all know the truth
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In Wellington NZ when the Lord Of The Rings came out, we had life-size Nazgul on some of the city's buildings, and a (much) larger-than-life Gollum somewhere as well. They were only temporary, but they were rad.
I'm pretty sure Kong showed up somewhere when King Kong came out too, but I was paying a bit less attention to that one…
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The 1:1 scale Gundam in Tokyo really set the standard for this sort of thing.
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Spider-Man but not the new suit, the Sam Raimi one; they were more like the comic! They could do Ghostbusters, but it'd have to be creative, just like Anonymous 7:43 said. Spider-Man or The Ghostbusters, it should be freakin' awesome!
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I'm from Forest Hills, New York. They should put the Spider-Man statue right in my neighborhood.
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Don't you think it is a little disturbing that statues of 'pop-iconography' are being made to connect people to places? Is that the reference point of late 20th century man? I am all for cultural symbols, but does it not prove our dearth as human actors, now we are just beings?
Also it's weird that I have to “prove” I am not a robot, to leave a post about a statue about Robocop? Just saying…
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Awesome. I'm sure me and my fellow Michigan geeks are gonna be pleased as punch about that. 🙂
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@Anonymous 5:38 AM:
No, it's a reference point of early 20th century man too: Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbour (erected 1913).
Is this that much of a stretch from ancient peoples putting up statues of gods, legendary heroes, or saints? Even if these figures existed, they're probably not being venerated for historical events based on evidence.
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@Anonymous 7:40 PM:
Yep, there sure is: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DUUbMIuMIoI/TZoRVnP4QeI/AAAAAAAAC6g/GFYC_TYrHPo/s1600/Future+birthsite+-+1.jpg
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I call for Captain America statue in Brooklyn!
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