RoboCop finally has found a permanent home in Detroit.
A statue looming 11 feet tall (3.3 meters) began standing guard over the Motor City on Wednesday.
“I think it's a good fit for the city, because the film took place in Detroit and it's just a fun thing that a lot of people worked really hard to bring to life,” said Jim Toscano, co-owner of the FREE AGE film production company where the bronze-cast statue now stands bolted into a concrete patio.
It took about 15 years before the idea finally found a home, and almost four decades since the popular science fiction film “RoboCop” hit theaters in 1987.
Set in the future, it portrayed Detroit as crime-ridden and poorly protected by a beleaguered and outgunned police force, until actor Peter Weller appeared as a nearly invincible cyborg, created by a nefarious corporation that was bent on privatizing policing.
“RoboCop” developed a cult following, spawning two sequels and a reboot.
A statue campaign appears to have started more than a decade ago when Detroit Mayor Dave Bing was tagged in a tweet that noted Philadelphia's statue of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa and said RoboCop would be a “GREAT ambassador for Detroit.”
Bing tweeted back, saying there were no such plans. But some Detroiters ran with the idea, crowdfunding it through a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $67,000 from more than 2,700 backers worldwide.
Including area resident James Campbell, who kicked in $100 and stopped by Thursday to see the final product.
“It's a great representation of safety and keeping the city safe from crime and all that bad stuff,” Campbell said. “He's like a symbol of hope.”

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