ED-209

The original Robocop movie has a special place in my heart.  There was a summer where I watched it almost every day.  I seriously wore out the VHS tape and had to get another one.  The mix of it being set in Detroit, the crazy violence, and Robocop himself were too much for a young Ken O. to resist.  As if that wasn’t enough there was the ED-209.  The Enforcement Droid 209 Series was just about one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.  I had an old toy one that would fire off caps, but I always wanted a more detailed ED-209 figure.

NECA apparently though the same because in September they are releasing a 10 inch ED-209 figure.  The figure is scaled to go along with their 7” Robocop.  The Robocop figure looks fantastic but I think everyone realizes that ED-209 is stealing the show here.  The big guy has an articulated head, legs that slide up and down, hinged arm wing panels, poseable cannon arms, and a rocket launcher that pops out of his right arm.

The ED-209 also has sound effects and dialogue.  A press of the button gets you those iconic hydraulic sounds and that growl.  Whoever decided that a robot should growl is a genius.  It also says things like “Warning, throw down your weapon.  You have 15 seconds to comply.”  If you’re drooling over this figure like I am, it’s going to cost you around 70 dollars.  It’s an expensive figure, but it looks like it is going to be a quality piece.  Just try to keep him off the stairs.

Robocop

That F’ing Monkey is back! Did you miss us? I have to admit that even though I was very stressed during the break there were many times things popped up that I was dying to talk about on the site. Also, I came up with a new addition to the site that we’ll be talking about soon. But today, today we’re talking about Robocop. Because I love Robocop.

Robocop came out in 1987. I wanted to see it in the theaters, but I had to wait until 1988 when it came out on VHS. I would have been 11 when I bought the VHS tape. That first summer I watched Robocop every day of summer vacation. If I was home, before I did anything else I watched Robocop. I still remember getting caught by a friend’s mom when we snuck into Robocop 2. It might have been that I was from the Detroit area, but I just connected to Robocop. Toys, video games, and comics; I loved all of it.

The news of a remake didn’t thrill me, but I was cautiously optimistic. We have to be honest here, the second movie was very flawed and everything that followed it got progressively worse. So I wanted to see the remake do well, but I was bracing myself for disappointment. Well I got it. Above is the picture of the new Robocop. So bland. He looks like a generic video game bad guy, an extra from Tron, or one of those suits in the first GI Joe movie. One of the most iconic designs I know had been replaced by one of the most generic. I’m actually sad.

Don’t thing that ED209 gets any better treatment. The fantastic looking robot in the first movie gets a makeover that would make it look at home in the Transformers movie. Jagged lines are everywhere. The original looked like something that could actually be built, this design looks like something that crashed to the earth.