At long last, Detroit finally has its statue of RoboCop.
The bronze statue depicting the eponymous cybernetic star of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 set-in-Detroit sci-fi satire was installed in Eastern Market on Wednesday, nearly 15 years after someone proposed it in a viral social media post.
Back in 2011, someone with the Twitter account @MT (no, not us) tweeted at then-Mayor Dave Bing saying that Detroit should have a statue of the part-man, part-machine cop because “Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & RoboCop would kick Rocky’s butt.”
The tweet continued, “He’s a GREAT ambassador for Detroit.”
The idea got even more attention after Bing’s office responded to it. “There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop,” Bing tweeted at the time. “Thank you for the suggestion.”
Nevertheless, a fan named Brandon Walley launched a crowdfunding effort which eventually raised more than $60,000. A statue was commissioned and constructed by George Gikas of Venus Bronze Works, though the project became mired in years of setbacks and red tape.
Pete Hottelet and Omni Consumer Products also contributed $25,000 and was involved with the production of the statue, including the design of a plaque with a QR code that pulls up a page at with more information about the project at easternmarket.org/robo-cop-statue.
Now, RoboCop stands tall outside of 3434 Russell St. in Detroit.
“Oh man, the RoboCop statue!” a mailman was overheard saying when Metro Times visited the statue Wednesday evening. “They finally got it up! Oh, this is dope.”
You can learn more about Detroit’s RoboCop statue in our 2021 cover story.
From the archives
A decade later, Detroit’s crowdfunded RoboCop statue is finally complete — but still awaiting a final home
In the spring of 2011, Brandon Walley and Jerry Paffendorf were hard at work in Corktown.…
This article appears in Dec. 10-23, 2025.