Where is it?
Detroit’s RoboCop Statue is located at 3434 Russell Street, Detroit, Michigan 48207, in Detroit’s Eastern Market neighborhood. Eastern Market is famous for its food and farmers market as well as its abundant public art. If you’re standing there right now, reading this on your phone after scanning the QR code on the statue’s base, welcome. If you’re not, we invite you to visit in person and to enjoy everything Eastern Market and Detroit have to offer.
What is it?
Detroit’s RoboCop Statue stands 10 feet tall, is made of bronze, and weighs approximately 2.5 tons, including the stainless steel base. It was cast in Detroit using resin sand molds, an industrial process used in commercial foundries.
The statue is modeled on the actual, original costume worn by actor Peter Weller in the 1986 film, RoboCop – a design by Rob Bottin that is inspired by Detroit’s automotive design prowess.
RoboCop is a science fiction film set in Detroit (though filmed in Pittsburgh and Dallas) and released in 1987. The writer and director, Paul Verhoeven, intended RoboCop to be an “American Jesus” hero character who dies, is resurrected, and must resist corruption as he finds his way to the truth. It deals in timeless themes that are relevant to this day, but also holds an immutable place in pop culture; that perspective is the most accurate context.
The statue was cast at Venus Bronze Works in Detroit, the same foundry that maintained many of the city’s most famous statues, like The Spirit of Detroit and The Joe Louis Fist – but as a physical and conceptual work of art derived from a blockbuster film, it’s hard to say that the RoboCop statue has one maker. From the beginning – back in 2011 up through public installation in 2025 – it has been a massively collaborative project with many hands reaching out to pull him forward across trials, tribulations, pandemics, and other challenges.
As part of the licensing agreement between MGM, The Imagination Station of Roosevelt Park, and Omni Consumer Products, MGM has ownership of the physical statue and intellectual property, but Detroit’s RoboCop Statue is much more like a Ouija board with many souls acting as a medium, putting in the necessary blood, sweat and cheer to bring it to life. We’re grateful to MGM (and its parent company, Amazon) for understanding the unique dynamics and spirit at play here.
While the RoboCop statue is made of bronze – an alloy of copper and tin – it is also an alloy of Detroit, the internet, American pop culture, and the care of countless individuals who put in the effort to see things through. We hope you enjoy it on whatever level attracts and interests you: exquisite craftsmanship, cool stuff, nostalgia, narrative themes, cautionary tales, unique processes, or something else entirely.
Thank you’s and credits from the artists…
Some of the core contributors who made the statue possible through resources, talent, persistence, permission, patience, and hard work include:
- All Kickstarter backers
- Everyone who volunteered along the way
- Venus Bronze Works: Giorgio Gikas, Jay Jurma, Nadine Chronopoulos, and team, and in collaboration with James Viste
- The Imagination Station of Roosevelt Park: Jerry Paffendorf, Mary Paffendorf, Bernard Sucher, Mike Glinski, Charles Shaw, and in collaboration with Brandon Walley
- Omni Consumer Products: Pete Hottelet
- Early spiritual guidance: John Leonard
- Mark Dubeau – Robocop armor restoration/sculpt
- Fred “The Robot Man” Barton
- Peter Weller, Rob Bottin, Paul Verhoeven, Stephan Dupuis, Craig Davies, John Davison and all those who brought RoboCop to life on the big screen
- Eastern Market: Including initial champions Dan Carmody and Ryan Dinkgrave; President & CEO, Katy Trudeau, and Executive Director of the Eastern Market Development Corporation, Sarah Pevelko
- FREE AGE: Jim Toscano, Danny Gianino
- The Smith Group
- Across the Board Creations
- Detroit Bikes: Nick Phlegar
- The Sign Division: Robert Piner
- The writers, producers, and acting cast of RoboCop
- MGM Studios
- Amazon
Special thanks to four of the project producers committed since day one:
- Jerry and Mary Paffendorf, who help run Regrid, the popular property mapping and land parcel data service.
- Brandon Walley, filmmaker and curator for film festivals such as Ann Arbor Film Festival and Media City Film Festival.
- Pete Hottelet, who creates art via the 20-year-long Omni Consumer Products project.
Many people have touched the project and assisted in various ways over the years, including attempting installation at other venues. Thanks to Brian Mooney who provided installation advice many times, and Mike Nevala at The Michigan Science Center who worked very hard to install the statue before plans were disrupted by the pandemic. There are many others. You know who you are. Thank you.
…and a very long story made short on project history:
Who knew it wouldn’t be quick to produce a 10-foot-tall bronze statue in Detroit? The project involved multiple fabrication processes and professionals across the country, complicated permissions, and questions about long-term care and maintenance, all against a backdrop of municipal bankruptcy, a pandemic, and many local and national social conversations.
Other than that, it was quite straightforward.
Back in 2011, a nonprofit called The Imagination Station of Roosevelt Park (now retired, with this statue being its last project) was trying to reactivate two fire-damaged, abandoned houses facing the then-very-much-abandoned Michigan Central Station in Corktown. They didn’t have any money, and very few people wanted to invest in the area at the time, so the only consistent tools they had were care and creativity. They cleaned the houses and a neighboring vacant lot, which functioned as a rotating public art gallery, and, for a time, every season there was a new work of art on the premises that invited people to visit the space and imagine what the future of the area might be.
One season a planned art project fell through, and the team was looking for a new community-focused project to invest time and energy into. Right around that time a tweet went viral after a user named M.T. suggested that Detroit needs a RoboCop statue – because Philadelphia has a Rocky statue. The Mayor’s office (at the time it was former Mayor, David Bing) replied to say thank you for the idea, but the city had no plans to build a RoboCop statue.
The Imagination Station team created a Kickstarter around the idea of 3D scanning a RoboCop action figure, enlarging it to 6’, and pouring it in iron. How hard could it be? Well! From there things took on a life of their own and the project grew in scale and reach. Omni Consumer Products, a real-life company that shares its name with the fictional megacorporation from the Robocop movie, donated funds, effort and ideation. John Leonard created a viral Facebook page bringing in additional interest, and all of this activity invited a lively national conversation. As the team worked on a path forward, the idea evolved – from iron to bronze, and from 6’ in height to 10’. Mark Dubeau from Tippett Studio (yes, that Tippett Studio – the one that makes Jurassic Park dinosaurs and Star Wars creatures) was able to access the original pieces of armor from the movie, which were being stored in a warehouse in Houston. He performed a painstaking, multi-year sculptural restoration. Exhaustive research was done to ensure the accuracy of the work, and many greebles were re-crafted as part of the process to ensure fidelity. The restored pieces were passed off to Fred Barton Productions and 3D scanned for enlargement. CNC milling from the scans produced a 10′ high-density polyurethane foam model, which was to be cast when the team could find a foundry to do the work. A 14-plus-year journey of numerous chapters lay ahead – although it was not clear it would take that long at the time.
From inception, it was clear that the statue needed to be made in Detroit, so the search was on to find a local craftsman that could meet the challenge. The team selected Venus Bronzeworks, headed by bronze master craftsman Giorgio Gikas.
In the years since the project was conceived, the original house that Imagination Station hosted art events in was renovated by filmmaker Stephen McGee and his family. Stephen produced the remarkable and highly recommended 20-year Detroit documentary, Resurgo: Rise from Within, which includes some footage of the RoboCop statue being made and moved. And Michigan Central Station was, miraculously, fully renovated and reopened by the Ford Motor Company (thank you, Ford! — while the statue is in a different neighborhood, the train station was an inspiration for the overall project, and its renovation is incredible).
As the project entered its final chapter, Imagination Station partnered with Eastern Market to find the statue a permanent home, one that felt both welcoming and true to the spirit of the project. Together they reached out to FREE AGE, a longtime Eastern Market business rooted in filmmaking, storytelling, and Detroit’s creative community. As film fans and pop-culture enthusiasts, FREE AGE is proud to welcome the statue on its property, where RoboCop now stands at the northern gateway to the Market. It’s a location designed for residents, visitors, and tourists alike to discover, gather, and enjoy a uniquely Detroit landmark.
Somehow the “quick RoboCop project” ended up taking a much longer span of time than those other, seemingly more complex projects (can you believe that Michigan Central Station was fully renovated first?), but all of it speaks to the wonderful, dynamic, and surprising city that is Detroit. Grit. Persistence. Community. Take your pick. The project needed them all, and Detroit was its teacher on how to make it happen against the odds.
If the process of producing the statue has a message: Stick with things to their completion even when they get hard. The obstacle is the way. Care and creativity can and do work if you don’t give up and are willing to adapt to circumstance and opportunity. It’s not always easy, and things don’t always happen quickly, but if you keep your shoulder on it, life presents ways, and you will find people to help you. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped along the way. The result is far richer because of it.
Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.
