Awhile back, with much fanfare and commotion on the internet, a crowdfunded Kickstarter campaign raised thousands of dollars to construct a giant RoboCop statue.
Last summer, we talked to both the artist putting the piece together and the organizers in an in-depth piece that we’re not going to repeat here – you can go and read it to see how RoboCop in Detroit got here. We spent more than 2,300 words on it.
We receive between 5 and 10 requests every week asking about this statue at Daily Detroit, more than any other topic we’ve covered.
At that time, they said it’d be the fall of 2015 we’d see the statue. That time has obviously passed as it’s spring of 2016, and although we don’t have a new expected completion date, we do have a couple of updates with photos that we’re sharing with the permission of Brandon Walley from their Imagination Station Kickstarter page.
The story below is told by Taylor Roe and the photographs from Venus Bronze Works, according to organizers. The text was posted a couple of days ago; the photos are from the last two updates. They’re on the head and the big feet.
“We’re just letting Giorgio and his team buckle down and do the work,” said Walley to Daily Detroit.
A RoboBacker in Old Detroit
Like the rest of you, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the latest Robo news, and through a serious of fortunate events, I found myself face to face with Robocop’s large bronze visage on my very first trip to Detroit.
10 Feet Tall and Bulletproof
The last time Team Robo checked in, the molds had been prepared and were at Venus Bronze Works in the capable hands of artisan Giorgio Gikas, who is in the final stages of crafting many dollars’ worth of bronze bricks into a RoboCop that will weight 2500 pounds and stand 10 feet tall—13 once on his pedestal.
Touring the studio helped me understand just how large of an undertaking building the statue has been. Giorgio put in a furnace solely to melt the statue’s bronze, which is then poured by hand into each form. And after a tremendous amount of work—pro-bono, no less—almost every section of RoboCop has been cast, ready to be assembled.
