Monday, February 22, 2021

Dinosaurs!: From Cultural to Pop Culture - 1987: Robocop

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1987: Robocop

Located within 1987's Robocop by Paul Verhoeven, is a classic example of dinosaurs within pop culture, especially renditions of dinosaurs that didn't keep up with their scientific equivalents. 

The movie Robocop is broken up by several fake, in-universe movies, including this one for the 6000 SUX, a gas guzzling vehicle that gets 8.2 mpg. The dinosaur "commercial", located at the 1:15:59 minute mark, uses a classic stop-motion dinosaur effect, similar to those seen in 1933's King Kong, as well as many movies afterwards through the 1950's and 1960's. 

Dinosaur from Robocop (1987)

The dinosaur in the commercial is a questionable species, not really resembling anything known to have existed. It is a clearly a theropod, similar to a T. rex, however with three digits on its hands like an Allosaurus with relatively long arms. It is also looking to be about 5 stories tall, or ~75 feet tall, based on the building in the background. This is far taller, even with the antiquated upright stance in the commercial, of any known theropod. At this height, this dinosaur is reaching the height levels of the tallest dinosaurs to ever have lived, like the Sauroposeidon proteles. 

Up front close up of Robocop's (1987) dinosaur.

The commercial dinosaur also has a series of horns/spikes above its eyes, like Carnotaurus. However, Carnotaurus only had one spike over each eye, and also had significantly reduced forelimbs, similar to T. rex. 

Carnotaurus reconstruction from Dinosaur Wiki.
   

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