1987 Robocop animatronic arm

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jun 28, 2014

• #1

Hello everyone
This animatronic arm the OCP team shows to Morton during Robocop pov building scene used to fascinate me as a kid, and I can't find anything on the web about it.
So does anybody has any kind of info about this prop? Who did make it? What has become of it? Does anyone have some picture of it?
THX



Look at this beauty:

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 8, 2018

Predian

Well-Known Member

• Jun 29, 2014

• #2

I haven't seen this one but it may have been kept by the people that made it or gifted to a producer. Many of the miniatures and other pieces from the three films stayed with Phil Tippett, Profiles in History had some of his items a few years ago.

 

Rik1138

Sr Member

• Jun 29, 2014

• #3

There's also the possibility that its not a prop, but an actual robot hand being developed by someone that loaned/rented it for the scene. Been a while since I've seen it, but you only see it once, right? And it doesn't really look like anything else used in the film (other than being a robot hand...).

That would probably be an easier way to do the scene vs trying to build a working hand from scratch.

 

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jun 30, 2014

• #4

RIK1138 I really think it's a prop, it's not that far off from the Robocop we know, the upper arm is definitely from Robocop's armor, and the hand's palm and fingertips are wide and thick like Robocop's. The rest looks different because it's meant to look "naked" so we can see trough, like Arnie's arm in T2. Furthermore the way it's moves makes me think more to a wires animated puppet (it's the usual way to do this in cinema, you can see all the sheaths going out of the shoulder) rather than a real robot hand, especially given the robotics advancement of the time.
The only thing I don't get is the protrusion near the little finger. Maybe at the time they did this prop it was part of the design, maybe a weapon in the hand or something…

 

Apollo

Legendary Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jul 1, 2014

• #5

Looks like maybe Rob gave Stan a call once again

 

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jul 8, 2014

• #6

Someone told me that Rob Bottin has the prop, I contacted him via his facebook page, in the faint hope he answers me, I'll let you know if I learn something…
Still nobody who can tell me something about this prop?

 

nick daring

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jul 12, 2014

• #7

That arm is cool.

 

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jul 17, 2014

• #8

Hey that's some cool photos, thank you! :eek
How in hell did you find them? Especially the second one, the close up with Verhoeven!

 

Last edited: Jul 17, 2014

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jul 17, 2014

• #9

There is a short appearance of the arm in this behind the scene video around 1min23:

[video=dailymotion;x9dn6q]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9dn6q_robocop-behind-the-scenes_shortfilms[/video]

 

nick daring

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jul 17, 2014

• #10

Just collected them online somewhere.

What's funny though is that I actually knew one of the guys who puppeteered the arm originally. About 12 years ago I interned at a 3d Animation studio in Dallas for a few months and one of the guys there was an ex-effects guy from the 80's-90's now working in CG.

 

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jul 19, 2014

• #11

that's cool

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2014

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Jul 24, 2014

• #12

I've found a nice photo here

 

frightzone_4_you

Well-Known Member

• Mar 21, 2015

• #13

The Robotic Arm Prop Also Made An Appearance In An Episode Of ROBOCOP: The Series (1994), Episode "Zone Five".

 

ChAnOoD

New Member

• Apr 23, 2015

• #14

As a Robo fan, I could tell that it was controlled by some kind of wires, as someone else said it before. As for the little finger missing, it just pop out in one of the takes, and it appeared later that way. I think you could find more info on the DVD/BluRay edition of the film. I recall they talked about the Robo-arm and how it was controlled in some of the extras.

 

savmagoett

Well-Known Member

• Aug 24, 2018

• #15

For those interested, I'm begenning a little project about it…
https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=293897&p=4512213#post4512213

 

thegnome

Sr Member

• Aug 9, 2019

• #16

that pretty rad!

 

xl97

Master Member

• Aug 9, 2019

• #17

Design it with room for some steppers/servos and you can automate the actions that you want.

WOuldnt be that hard...

Your biggest cost would be the stepper(s)... an Arduino and driver board(s) would cost only a few bucks (USD) each..