Is This Robocop?

We only saw a tiny glimpse of Robocop’s chasis in that ED-209 viral thingee awhile back, either for the building of suspense or because they literally haven’t settled on a design yet. Now, Geekscape says they’ve got a concept model of the character…

If this is the real thing (or something close) it’s pretty bad; but also completely plausible as a 2012 moviemaking decision: Too slick, not at all iconic, would never peg it as being Robocop if not prompted. Clearly designed to be “dynamic” in motion (re: a lot more jumping about from New Robocop, because that was such a big, gaping hole in the first one…)
Bottom line: This looks like a random mook from any of a dozen recent video-games, not the lead of a big movie.

31 thoughts on “Is This Robocop?

  1. Anonymous says:

    I had a feeling they would make a more slick version since the original is potentially a bit too big and bulky for the inevitable “jumping around doing crap in CG”. But this? Couldn't they've just tried to slim down the original armor or kept any part of it? The original armor is one of the most iconic costumes. This, on the other hand, is the most generic armor imaginable.

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  2. gavstern says:

    When I was a little kid, I had a plastic Robocop helmet, but I wasn't allowed to wear it around my great-grandfather because he “didn't like it.”

    The reason was it reminded him of the Nazis, who he escaped from in Poland.

    If a 90 year old man understood what OCP represents from the helmet design, then whoever came up with it did a damn good job.

    Did these guys put that kind of thought into it? I doubt it.

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  3. Hewlett says:

    What if… what if the generic nature of this design is deliberate? A calculated effort to encapsulate the homogenised nature of 'robot-troop-people' in modern media? As RoboCop was once Stodgy Military Design made solid, is this now Generic Robot Suit Designs given similar… um, flesh?

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  4. Arturo says:

    I fell like the days of slow, bulky, nigh-unstoppable robots are at an end, and it sucks. Thanks to that, I don't think we'll ever have another true Robocop, Terminator, etc. Also, this means robots don't get to be scary anymore.

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  5. Dustin says:

    I was down with the ED-209 redesign. A little bit busy perhaps, but it's recognizable as ED. This is literally the Mark II with an exposed mouth. I always try to stay positive, but I'm having visions of a weightless Robocop.

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  6. The Bagwellian says:

    Throw it into the computer, duplicate it a hundred times, and you have a pretty convincing army of space marines. Out of a B action movie. Going direct to video. In South Korea.

    This thing sucks.

    Oh, and are those cloth gloves on his hands? Are we actually thinking a cyborg has freaking isotoners on his mitts?

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  7. Anonymous says:

    “Clearly designed to be “dynamic” in motion (re: a lot more jumping about from New Robocop, because that was such a big, gaping hole in the first one…)”

    From the guy who can't shut up about how Batman's suit isn't…

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  8. Anonymous says:

    @Above

    Batman is specifically intended as an athletic, agile, subvertive fighter. Robocop was intended as a lumbering brute of excessive force. Context matters.

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  9. Chris says:

    The problem with this design, which a lot of the previous posters hit upon, is that it looks more like a guy in a suit rather than a cyborg with a human face.

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  10. Mariner says:

    Gee guys, the design language is so vague, it's almost as if this was concept art rather than a final draft.

    It's like everyone reading this blog was educated in New Berlin.

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  11. Uncle Tim says:

    “Robocop was intended as a lumbering brute of excessive force. Context matters.”

    This comment, and one Bob made on Twitter about the filmmakers “not getting” the point of ED-209 in their new design, suggests that perhaps some are missing a key distinction here: this is not the 1987 version.

    Yes, Robocop was intended to be a lumbering powerhouse and ED-209 was supposed to be an unwieldy, impractical and badly designed robot… in the original film. That was the context then. This is not that film.

    I think the best remakes take the same idea and push it in a different direction. That includes the characters as well. If they didn't have a different direction to go in, there would be no point. Though whether there actually is a point to this remake beyond the financial gain has yet to be determined, it seems slightly silly to critique every element as though it were supposed to directly translate from the original.

    That almost seems the equivalent of looking at Heath Ledger's Joker, comparing it to Jack Nicholson's and saying “He's totally different. They clearly missed the point of the character.” Perhaps instead the filmmakers are trying to express a different point and thus have an entirely different conception of the characters.

    Perhaps there are good reasons why ED-209 will function as a much more competent and efficient killing machine. Perhaps there are reasons why Robocop should appear sleeker such as, as they did with the first one, attempting to reference more modern automobile designs.

    As for this design, I'm not a fan as it looks a bit too HALO and as some have pointed out, not enough like a robot, but A: as someone else has pointed out, this is a concept and not necessarily the final one, and B: I'd want to see it in the context of the film (and that's the context of the NEW film rather than the old one) before I make any real judgments on it.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    “Context matters.”

    Context he doesn't bring up in his snarky lil comment. He's not bitching about it because the concept's antithetical to the core of the character, he's bitching because the concept itself is modern and by that quality alone, without merit.

    'nother words: Tired hipster derision is tired.

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  13. David (The Pants) says:

    Since other people said other things, I'll say it appears to look like a Zekrom suit.

    Also it looks like a suit. But that's been stated.

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  14. Omegalittlebob says:

    Looks like a random piece of early concept art. One of dozens that's never seen by the eyes of most outside the production team. Hopefully that's all this is, and the final “armor” if you will, will look way more unique.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    You do realize that this was confirmed fake at the time of posting, yes?

    UPDATE: An MGM rep has contacted CBM to clarify…
    “MGM has no knowledge of Mike Jensen & he has never been hired by the studio or the production team to create any designs for the upcoming film, RoboCop. We would like to request that you correct the post.”

    http://www.comicbookmovie.com/robocop/news/?a=64751

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  16. JPArbiter says:

    on it's own Merit the costume concept is not bad. it looks like something that can be fairly mobile and respectably tough. you know what it does not look like though?

    it does not look like Robocop.

    the term “Full Body Prosthesis” was used in the Verhoven movie, this does not look like they took Alex Murphy's brain, spinal collum, and face and put it in a life support chassis. it looks like some kind of suit.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Looks like it'd be a little generic, but then again I can see that being the point in the design. I doubt Robocop would be the ONLY cybernetic cop running around in a future society, so there'd be a uniformity to any design made in their prosthetic bodies.

    But, this is all out of context, that's just my personal thought, and this IS concept art, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.

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