Right off the bat: that photo above is not of Robocop proper, though it is from the new film.
Apparently it is of a drone made by Omincorp- a humanoid version that it can be presumed is a predecessor of the design that will encase Alex Murphy’s remains. I’m not sure if this is a shot of one on the “production line” or if this is an animatronic we’re seeing the backside of, but I’m leaning towards the former. The cables and coils don’t look quite “designed” enough to be diagetic, but they also don’t look entirely practical. It’s a coin flip, all until MGM goes around with yet another misguided C&D to yank down an image that everyone has already seen. Perhaps they won’t bother this time.
This also suggests that all the early hand-ringing about Robcop’s dumb design in early shots was for naught, as this film clearly has plenty of crazy versions of different robots to please someone at least. This particular robot might be the one that makes fun of the human-hybrid Robocop in the robo-locker room, perhaps calling him a robo-chump, and shoving him with his robo-shoulder as he robo-walks by.
It is a shame that, like Videodrome, I feel this is an IP that has something to say to this modern world, if only either could make it through the Hollywood hack system to be worthwhile on the other end. I’m not holding my breath for either of them, especially this one if half of the things I’ve heard about the Robcop script are true.
Source | Latino Review