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RoboJOF

Wed May 20, 2015 2:26 am


A Female Robocop?

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As a fan of the Transformers animated series and comic book series, I have always liked the episodes or issues that focused on the female transfomers like Alita-1, Chromia, etc. Characters like Arcee and Windblade have been turning up a lot in the IDW comic series. There are even plans for a new Transformers book with an all-female lineup. This sounds pretty cool (I always thought that the female characters in other comic teams like the X-Men were cool, too).

So is there room for a female Robocop or is that as silly as Pepper Potts in an Ironman suit?


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RoboPimp

Wed May 20, 2015 4:24 am


Re: A Female Robocop?

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is there room for a female Robocop or is that as silly as Pepper Potts in an Ironman suit?

I haven't read any of the stuff with "Rescue" or whatever she is called, but I have heard good things. The Ironman armor could be piloted by anyone really, so why not a woman? Same goes for Robocop... Metropolis and the Maria robot in it are a big influence on Robocop, and really all robot design, so female robots / cyborgs have a long history. I say if they are gonna do another Robocop, or something like Robocable, I am gonna be a bit apprehensive regardless but I wouldn't care if it were a girl. I used to have some kind of female Robocop type action figure from the Alpha Commando line as a kid. It was kind of lame because her armor was pink and stuff but I liked the idea. I always thought it would be cool if they turned Lewis into a Robocop if they ever made a Robocop 4. But now that I'm older I think that would be pretty corny, I think I was reading too much ROM at the time. Either way, I don't think the gender or the Robocop is the issue, but rather the approach.


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AlexRobo

Wed May 20, 2015 8:11 am



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Ever seen the movie Ex_Machina directed by Alex Garland?  That gives you an idea of what a female RoboCop would look like.

http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/ex%20machina.jpg


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Archive

Wed May 20, 2015 8:27 am



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The thing to avoid with a female RoboCop is to not over sexualize it. As shown on a lot of fan made designs it can get pretty ridiculous when they have huge boobs and the machine walks around on high heels; making it look more like the future of a street walker than a law enforcer.

They thing with RoboCop is that it doesn't really have to rely on male and female as such. They basically only used Alex Murphy head, and the only human part shown is the mouth, so there is no real reason to make the body into anything overly masculine or feminine. If ever a "RoboCopS" scenario occurred the design for a RoboCop unit would be the same for male and female. It would just be a default cyborg unit that they placed the head in.


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artuditu

Wed May 20, 2015 10:04 am



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They thing with RoboCop is that it doesn't really have to rely on male and female as such. They basically only used Alex Murphy head, and the only human part shown is the mouth, so there is no real reason to make the body into anything overly masculine or feminine. If ever a "RoboCopS" scenario occurred the design for a RoboCop unit would be the same for male and female. It would just be a default cyborg unit that they placed the head in.

Well, there is Alex Murphy's voice too. How distracting and puzzling would be to have Robocop with a feminine voice? I think if you use a woman for Robo you have to change the design and make it slightly sexualized (obviously big breasts is not the way to go), or it won't work in a social context. Even if we are talking about robots, if the public perceive them as male or female that has a psychological effect that can't be ignored. 

By the way, could we imagine putting ED-209 a female voice? We can't say it's a sexualized design, but still it would make a huge difference, the psychological effect would be completely different.

Back to topic, the 2014 remake approach (fast, tactic, stealth) would work fine for a female Robo, but the original concept (massive, slow, tank) is clearly more masculine, the whole design is emphasizing muscles (chest, abs, biceps, big legs with calves), 1987 Robo is almost a steel bodybuilder, and bigger muscles are a masculine feature.


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ChAnOoD

Wed May 20, 2015 11:43 am



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Ever seen the movie Ex_Machina directed by Alex Garland?  That gives you an idea of what a female RoboCop would look like.



Great film! I thought the head sculpt did a little nod to helmetless Robo.

The thing to avoid with a female RoboCop is to not over sexuality it. As shown on a lot of fan made designs it can get pretty ridiculous when they have huge boobs and the machine walks around on high heels; making it look more like the future of a street walker than a law enforcer.

That make me laugh  :lol: 

I think it´d be difficult to go for a female Robo. Tricky to make the design work. As artuditu said on his post, I´m sure a female Robo with the same bulky suit would be... weird. And you can´t go with a oversexualized suit either, so not sure how they could make it work.


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RoboFan_93

Wed May 20, 2015 12:17 pm



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Frankly, the only thing I can imagine when someone mentions a female RoboCop is this:

http://cdn.iofferphoto.com/img3/item/178/524/843/lady-battle-cop-live-action-japanese-movie-dvd-sub-efeb.jpg

If the design is something like that and not overly sexualized, I can see it happening. If, however, we're talking about using the design we all know and love on a female, I'm not seeing it.


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Archive

Wed May 20, 2015 12:50 pm



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I think that "Lady battlecop" design is ok. It works towards such a unit being fast and aquiline. Unfortunately even that design has painted red lips and slight high heals which is just extremely silly.  

THE RoboCop suit has an exaggerated male design and naturally wouldn't work for a female, so a hypothetical RoboCopS unit would have to be a new design that wasn't either male or female. More generic. (and probably more boring). 

The thing about male/female voice is interesting as Murphy technically would not have his own voice as they most likely didn't save his vocal cords. RoboCop should in reality have a fabricated robotic voice in the same way as ED-209.


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Stan The Man

Wed May 20, 2015 6:08 pm



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At the risk of seeming sexist, I think artu makes a very valid point in regards to exuding authority and power in both a vocal and physical sense - There is indeed a psychological and sociological difference in using a male voice and form rather than a female that, while certainly not exclusive, just can't be ignored. You'll notice a female never seemed to be under consideration for the Robo project in either the original or the reboot, even though there are of course well-performing women soldiers and police officers in both cases. Males are still considered more to be authority figures than women, and I think that will remain the case for some time.. That's the perception anyway, and perception plays a big part with RoboCop, at least in terms of it being in the public eye, both as what it is directly as well as a 'product'.

I agree that if you do have a female version, aesthetically it does have to be sexualized, or at least have clear feminine qualities or indeed it just won't work. Artu put it brilliantly that the original suit design doesn't lend itself to a generally more lithe female form - The original suit is more a bodybuilder, which while women certainly do it, it's a lot more atypical and not something I think would be easily acceptable, let alone respectable, for a society at large, even today. It's like putting a cool female voice on ED-209, just doesn't work really I would think. 

In terms of the reboot suit, that would be more the template to go with a female RoboCop, as you're talking about something that is more agile and less lumbering and massive. R2014s' still had some clear male characteristics, but at the 'base' you're talking about more an runner or bi/triathlon build, which works male or female, or rather, would be more easily accepted, and respected by the public at large. Instead of some male traits, try some female traits and you might have something.

As for actually wanting to see it, well, on the one hand I find it a kind of silly idea, a gimmick that really I don't think would be any better or even as well as what we already have in terms of the ostensible purpose (a law enforcement unit) but on the other it seems neat and interesting in a way, it could be a good set up for a good bit of social and human commentary that is at the heart of the Robo story.. So basically I just don't fuckin' know. :roll:

I wouldn't mind such a thing, wouldn't mind seeing it implemented in some way, IF it can be done without it being silly. Which is tough. Hell that was a real concern with the original Robo, you add a female version to that and well, I'm skeptical. It would be quite difficult, if not impossible. As said and noted practically all the designs and art for such a thing are usually over-sexualized with a voluptuous figure -huge boobs, high heels and long legs etc and that just makes it a joke, a caricature and totally counter-productive and counter-intuitive. Archive said it, it's supposed to be a cop, not a Kardashian. But you can't go all the other way either - You do need to have some feminine traits, otherwise why make it 'female' in the first place.. Bah. I think I'm with Pimp ultimately in that the approach would be the problem more than the idea itself.. I wouldn't care about the gender either. I'd just want something that would work.


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JohnBoyAdvance

Sat May 23, 2015 9:15 pm



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Hmmm, to be honest, I really wouldn't mind the RebootRobo being a girl. I mean, I would have a reason to watch it really. It would be an interesting twist in a movie that needed something. Instead it just sits in my blurays looking at me and I look back muttering "one day."

As for the design of a Robocopette - I guess, looking at the Spartan female designs in Halo 4 and Reach I guess you would have a slimmer body and a little bit of extra room in chest and bottom.

Thats it.

I do wonder if the Robocops thing on Machinima is going to have a ladyrobo? It'll be quite cool.

But yeah. Robocop could work as a girl, could work as anyone in the suit really but gotta be y'know decent and stuff.


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Slash Man

Tue May 26, 2015 2:27 am



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You know, I actually had a fear that after RoboCop, they'd make Lewis into a cyborg ("they'll fix you"). But that'd just be because it'd be corny to have no consequence to death or injury and just turn everyone into a robot. Needless to say, I'm glad they didn't explore that route in RoboCop 2.

Though for current times, I pretty much agree with what's been said. It'd be jarring to see a woman put into Murphy's position from the original series, I could see it being more accepted within the realm of the reboot. More of a gender neutral suit that's more form fitting than the masculine suit of armor.


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RoboPimp

Tue May 26, 2015 3:53 am



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One thing to note: Robocop already has big breasts.


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GoldenPimp

Tue May 26, 2015 11:05 pm



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Shooting criminals in the dick will make sense.


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RoboJOF

Wed May 27, 2015 2:51 am



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I am torn. I think that the female Robocop would have to be designed with the female form in mind, but logic tells me that it shouldn't matter. 

Perhaps if there were several Robocop suits designed for various skills (speed, strength, flight, etc) then there could be a female Robocop that had a female design. This reminds me of the Centurions. Remember (no women, but similar) there were 3 guys who had different suits that used different weapons and tools to complete their mission?

The first movie tried to show that a cyborg cop was a good idea or a natural technological progression, but in the end, it was a person who saved the day. The remake was similar in that way, while Robocop 2 and 3 (gotta love this) did the opposite and made it seem that not only was the machine more important than the man. 

While it might be neat to see multiple robots or aliens or creatures on screen, we already have that with several movies (For heaven's sake, there were friggin' tree beasts in the Noah movie!! When did that happen?). I like the realism of Robocop 1, so while I would love to see a reboot or another sequel, I think that I am just going to have to love the hell out of the movies I got.


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Robocop_Unit_1983

Sun May 31, 2015 6:48 pm



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Female Robocop wouldn't work, regardless of anything, Stan's words are sound logic which cannot be challenged. Robocop's voice commands respect without demanding it.


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Edd 209

Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:41 am



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Be interesting.
Make a generic sexless robot that anyone can be put into.

Though I have always wondered what it would be like to put someone in who was already physically challenged in some way?  This was hinted at in R2014.
Though end of the day Robocop is Robocop because of the character Murphy which was perfectly created in R1.

And Verheoven was inspired by:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q0NzALRJifI/maxresdefault.jpg


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RoboJOF

Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:59 pm



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There are many movies from the past that touched on these ideas: Android, Westworld are a few that come to mind. The movie couldn't just be a female in Robocop armor, like some cyborg inspired Bride of Frankenstein, it has to have purpose, and be a logical progression, just as Robocop was. However, I agree with others, it would not likely work, although I just saw a movie that seemed to be going in this direction. Any happen to catch Ex Machina?


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artuditu

Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:59 pm



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A logical explanation could be trying to make a Robocop more approachable and friendly looking, a more politically correct agent of order and authority. The sarcasm would be making her as brutal and violent as the original Robo when action is needed, becoming a symbol of woman empowerment.

She could even be created by a committee of feminists, kind of R2 irony with a Dr Faxx very invested in the project.


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RoboJOF

Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:24 pm



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I think Dr. Faxx would have made an excellent cyborg. Perhaps she could lead a band of roughneck mercenaries and try to take of Delta City. Robocop attempts to squelch their rebellion only to find out that they are all cybernetically enhanced!


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artuditu

Wed Jul 05, 2017 5:35 pm



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Seeing how dead the franchise is, I now think it could have been an interesting take, difficult to make it work without feeling cringeworthy, but it also had the potential to defy expectations and surprise everyone.

Interesting fact, in IMDB less than 10% of votes for 1987 film are from women.


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RoboLewis

Tue Jun 30, 2020 12:08 am



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When I saw the first film as a kid and watching Lewis get shot up by Clarence, I thought she was going to get turned into a machine like Murphy. Especially when he says, “They’ll fix you.. They fix everything!”  Her injuries weren’t as severe as Murphy’s and I thought she would be like a Bionic Woman or the T-X in Terminator 3. But of course in the second film we see that didn’t happen and she recovered. I’ve often wondered if Lewis had been the one to get blown away at the beginning of the movie, would Bob Morton and his team still use her to make Robocop or decide to use a male candidate instead?


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Robomania

Tue Jun 30, 2020 12:32 pm



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Can there be a female cyborg? sure.  Would I like Robocop himself be replaced and become someone else? straight up no for me, he wouldn't be the same character I have liked all these years.  Same goes for too many changes to visual design, though that is straying from the question being asked.  When they talked about spending money on an awesome suit in the first movie, they sure got an awesome suit.

