Five years and 12 days ago I made a heartfelt charitable donation: I gave $1.01 to a Kickstarter campaign to build a giant statue of RoboCop in Detroit.

I'd never been to Detroit (still haven't), nor had I actually seen RoboCop (that hasn't changed either). But my 18-year-old self thought it would be a good investment anyway. It seemed like God's work.

The foam model Detroit Needs A Statue of Robocop! The campaign raised $67,436 — a huge amount for Kickstarter in February 2011. It felt good to be part of something so big and so absurd for the cost of a pop can.

In the years since, that cool buck bought me a stream of updates that eventually slowed to a trickle. The tenth update, sent in December 2011, said the design was finished and on its way to construction. In 2013, the team revealed a 10 foot tall foam model. The last update came in 2014 when the project leaders promised a completed, 3,000 pound statue by Spring 2015.

Then radio silence.

I'd largely forgotten about the project since then — wondering about it occasionally, but frankly assuming that funds had run out or the team had moved on to other projects. Maybe one lifetime vending machine purchase short, I soldiered on.

But hark! News from the (mid-) West!

A Sunday email from the RoboCop statue team revealed a completed bronze head and other exciting bits and pieces.

The creators write:

Here are the latest pictures we've received from Venus Bronze Works showing the fully cast bronze head and some other Robo features. We're excited to see the progress and have been told they're closing in on completion. Of course, we're in the same position you are, waiting for the work to be done. The good news is production clearly continues. We'll keep you updated when we get another update from Venus.

Who knows exactly what that means in terms of the project's finish date. But it feels good to be a part of (weird) history in the making.

You can find pictures from the latest update below.