Julie Hinds

Detroit Free Press Pop Culture Critic

It's been a long, laborious journey toward the RoboCop statue that was sparked by a 2011 tweet to then-Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

Now the latest update on the crowdfunded project reveals an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the status of the 10-foot-tall bronze RoboCop, which will be more like 13 feet tall once it's on a pedestal. (Scroll down on the Kickstarter page to see the photos.)

There are photos from Detroit's Venus Bronze Works of the bronze arms, legs, torso and head that will become the completed version of the Motor City cop-robot character from the classic 1987 sci-fi movie "RoboCop." The pictures are accompanied by explanations of the time-consuming process of assembling the pieces.

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It's the first official update posted since May 2016 from the Imagination Station, which raised more than $67,000 on Kickstarter from about 2,700 people for the project.

According to Detroit's Venus Bronze Works, the assembly of the statue already is in progress and "the final major molds of the RoboCop statue were completed and poured in mid October of 2016."

In the posting, the Imagination Station hints that the next update will "finally be able to share where you can visit the RoboCop Statue while he watches over Delta City!"

Project manager Brandon Walley says Imagination Station is still in the process of working out the logistics and nailing down the desired geographical location for the statue.

There are locations in mind and conversations underway with the necessary parties, according to Walley, who adds that the unveiling date will be announced "hopefully not too far in the future because (Venus Bronze Works ) are really moving on the statue."

The campaign to put a RoboCop statue in Detroit first grabbed headlines six years ago, but the reality of making it turned out to be a lengthy and monumental task. The hurdles have included obtaining copyright permission and completing many complicated mold and model-making steps in the lead-up to the bronzing process. Imagination Station also was committed to making the statue in Detroit at the in-demand Venus Bronze Works, one of the leading sculptural restoration and conservation businesses in the U.S.

"It was really important for us to have the bronzing done in Detroit and with craftsmen as skilled as those from Venus Bronze Works," says Walley. The work potentially could have been done more quickly elsewhere, he says, "but for us the whole message was this being a Detroit project.".

At one point, the unveiling was hoped to take place in the summer of 2014. That was the same year a "RoboCop" remake arrived in theaters.

Like the Rocky statue in Philadelphia and the Mary Tyler Moore statue in Minneapolis, the RoboCop statue could become a pop-culture landmark and tourist destination for those visiting Detroit.

Contact Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com