Quite possibly the greatest Tweet ever!

For any boy who grew up in the 1980s, like myself, there are some movies that really grab the imagination.  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Die Hard, The Terminator are all in there.

And then there's.... ROBOCOP!

For the uninitiated, RoboCop is a movie that takes place in futuristic Detroit. A major corporation decides to develop cyborgs that can take over the overwhelmed local Detroit Police Department.  They get an existing cop who is on the verge of death, and convert him into a Cyborg. Sounds vaguely like Darth Vader from Star Wars when I put it that way.

Anyway, RoboCop is played by Peter Weller.  If you don't know him, he played Admiral Marcus in the recent Star Trek Into Darkness movie.

RoboCop, even the name rolls off your tongue. Say it real slow, Ro-bo-cop.  It has a vague sense of intimidation just by saying it.

On February 7th, 2011 (Not sure, could be 2010, but haven't been able to find a specific year), a lowly guy from Massachusetts tweeted to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing this.

Amusing thought isn't it?  Nobody thought it'd go anywhere.

Then Dave Bing actually replied!

See his dry response.









This sent Twitter into a frenzy at the thought.  Someone set up a Facebook page.

Someone then set up a Kickstarter page and asked for $50,000 to design, build, and install the statue. They actually did it - and raised about $67,000 from 2,718 backers.

Here's a current picture of the statue in development.  This needs to be painted silver, so obviously they're not done yet.

Here's what RoboCop looks like in the movie.











This campaign illustrates one of the first successful crowdfunded public/private partnerships in recent history.  A statue about a movie character???  What will people think of next!  Building a pool in the East River of New York City?  Oops, they've already got that idea there also.