A long-awaited Robocop statue is finally finished and it should be a time for celebration, except that no one knows where the gigantic statue will actually be displayed.

Back in 2011, crowdfunding was still a novel concept and so when a Detroit art group, Imagination Station, followed up a viral news story about a person on Twitter asking then-Detroit Mayor Dave Bing if Detroit could have a Robocop statue, started asking for donations to build such a statue (as after all, Philadelphia had a statue for Rocky Balboa and Robocop, who patrolled the streets of Detroit in the future in the 1987 film, Robocop, "would kick Rocky's butt"), it became a big story. It was covered by the news around the country and it soon raised over $60,000 towards building the statue. However, not unlike a number of early Kickstarter projects, there was some confusion about how much it would actually cost to produce the statue and as it turned out, $67,436 did not go quite as far as people might have believed in 2011.

RELATED: Coming 2 America Lands Early 2021 Amazon Prime Video Debut

As a result, various delays have pushed the project back to the point where a decade has passed since it all started. One of the most significant setbacks was that the metal fabricator in charge of making this bronze statue come to life, Giorgio Gikas, dealt with a major health crisis. Gikas was diagnosed with colon cancer and his treatments knocked him out of commission for over a year (luckily, he is now in complete remission). Health care costs also put Gikas into a financial bind, but he stuck with the massive project anyways.

The finished statue is 11 feet tall and just the base alone is half a ton. The complete statue and base weighs two tons. It was a massive undertaking and Gikas was assisted by his shop assistants, Terra Gillis, Sara Myefski, Erin Smart, and Jay Jurma (Jurma took the photographs that accompany this piece and served as the featured image).

RELATED: Coming 2 America Lands Early 2021 Amazon Prime Video Debut

The only problem is that there is no current place to display the statue at the moment. At the time the project was announced, Detroit was going through such a difficult financial time that plenty of options were open, but over the years, redevelopment has closed off those avenues. The latest planned site was at the Michigan Science Center, but they recently revealed that they had to pass, releasing the following statement:

Working with Imagination Station in 2018, MiSci, a private non-profit museum that receives no city, state or federal operating funding, had planned to install the 11-foot-tall bronze sculpture adjacent to the Center in conjunction with improvements to our grounds. But, given the pandemic's unprecedented pressures, MiSci's resources must now be entirely focused on our core mission of serving Michigan's students and families. The creation of the bronze work, which combines centuries-old metalworking techniques with 21st-century technology, remains an amazing STEM story. As Michigan's STEM hub, MiSci hopes to be able to support Imagination Station in the search for a new and appropriate home for this iconic work.

A statue like this is designed to be a tourist attraction, but in the middle of a pandemic, drawing people together is one of the last things that you want to do. Not only that, but the recent protests against the police has made a police officer, even a cyborg from the future, a tougher sell.

Whenever someone steps up, though, the statue is ready and a decade-long promise will be ready to be kept.

KEEP READING: HBO Max Is Finally Coming To Amazon Fire TV Devices

Source: Detroit Metro Times