Lucky Detroit gets its own giant RoboCop

“RoboCop Day” in Detroit took a hit Tuesday with the cancellation of a scheduled public unveiling of the city’s new 10-foot-tall bronze RoboCop statue. Fortunately, the giant RoboCop is still slated to throw the first pitch at the Tigers game at Detroit’s Comerica Park Tuesday evening.

The city had prepared to unveil the statue at noon at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters, but according to a release issued on behalf of the city after 2:30 p.m. ET, “due to unforeseen circumstances, our statue unveiling event today is cancelled.

“We know that fans have been eagerly awaiting news on the effigy honoring one of Detroit’s finest and we look forward to sharing those details in the near future,” the statement continued.

The idea for a RoboCop statue began nearly three years ago when a Massachusetts man sent a tweet to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing that a Robocop statue would “kick Philadelphia’s ‘Rocky’ statue’s butt.”

@mayordavebing Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & Robocop would kick Rocky’s butt. He’s a GREAT ambassador for Detroit.

- @MT (@MT) February 7, 2011

Bing responded that there were no plans for such a statue, but shortly thereafter a group called Imagination Station Detroit launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring the statue to life. Tuesday, RoboCop returns to the Motor City for with a bunch of RoboCop-themed activities, including photo ops with the statue and other props from the 1987 film.

Let’s hope RoboCop’s first pitch goes better than 50 Cent’s.

Update, 12:50 p.m. PT: The story has been updated to note the last-minute cancellation of the RoboCop statue public presentation.

(Via MLive)