Has it really been 30 years since the release of "RoboCop"? I'll buy that for a dollar.

Released July 17, 1987, "RoboCop" had a huge impact, even bigger than that of an ED-209 police droid falling down a flight of stairs. It marked director remake, two live-action series, two animated TV series, and numerous spinoffs in other media.

Still, as often as you've watched Weller's cyborg struggle to regain his humanity while stoically blowing away evildoers, there's much you may not know about how "RoboCop" was made.
1. The influences on "RoboCop," as cited by screenwriter Ed Neumeier or referenced directly in the movie, include "The Thing"). There were actually six suits, some in various states of damage resulting from RoboCop's battles with criminals.

9. The suit was so bulky that it took 11 hours for Weller to put it on the first time, and the production had to stop for three days while he learned to walk in it. It was too big to fit in the Ford Taurus police cars, so whenever you see RoboCop in a car, you see only Weller's metal-clad head and torso; below the waist, the actor was just wearing boxer shorts.
10. Even the suit's hands, lined with rubber for flexibility, were clumsy; it took 50 takes to film the shot where RoboCop catches a set of car keys.
11. Many of the action scenes were filmed by cult-fave "The Incredible Melting Man," on which Bottin had done an uncredited assist. McCrane's face and hands were covered with saggy latex prosthetics. Later, Boddicker's car hits Emil and he turns into mush; that effect was accomplished via use of a hollow dummy filled with leftovers from the catering truck.
15. Verhoeven's initial cut of the movie received an "X rating" from the ratings board, not for pornography, just for extreme violence. (The NC-17 rating hadn't been created yet.) Verhoeven trimmed some of the more graphic shots and added the satirical TV commercials to lighten the movie's grim tone, but he still had to resubmit and recut the movie 11 more times before the board relented and granted the film an R.
16. "RoboCop" cost just $13 million to make. It earned back $53 million at the domestic box office.
17. At the 1988 Academy Awards, "RoboCop" won the Oscar for Best Sound Editing. It was also nominated for Best Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
18. During the end credits, the obligatory anti-piracy warning reads that "unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution by enforcement droids."