Hot Toys ED-209 Full Review

The ED-209 (Enforcement Droid 209) was supposed to be a crime-fighting robot in the "RoboCop" movie but its malfunction led to the creation of RoboCop. In the movie, ED-209 was designed by Omni Consumer Products for law enforcement and defense purposes. Craig Davies designed and built ED-209 and worked with stop motion animator Phil Tippett to create the special effects for the movie.

This is Hot Toys 1/6 scale Movie Masterpiece ED-209 released in 2006 (previewed here previously). 'Nuf said

When requesting compliance from perceived lawbreakers, ED-209 states plainly what the party has to do to disengage the robot and the amount of seconds the party has to comply. The robot will count down remaining compliance time in intervals of five seconds.

[Mr. Kinney points a pistol at ED-209]
ED-209: [menacingly] Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.
Dick Jones: I think you better do as he says, Mr. Kinney.
[Mr. Kinney drops the pistol on the floor]
ED-209: You now have 15 seconds to comply.
[Mr. Kinney turns to Dick Jones, who looks nervous]
ED-209: You are in direct violation of Penal Code 1.13, Section 9.
[Entire room of people in full panic trying to stay out of the line of fire, especially Mr. Kinney]
ED-209: You have 5 seconds to comply.
Kinney: Help me!
ED-209: Four... three... two... one... I am now authorized to use physical force!
[ED-209 opens fire and shreds Mr. Kinney]

ED-209 was intended to be a comment on modern American design and corporate design policy; specifically, form over function, "just like an American car". If one knew where to look, they could find oil coolers, radiators, and heat exchangers on the machine. In addition, mounted on the legs are four large pneumatic cylinders, even though that many would be redundant on a machine of that size. Finally, the open grille for the radiator in the front is, according to designer Craig Davis, "a big, obvious, extremely stupid place to put something crucial like a radiator in an open area on a fighting unit like ED-209". Like they said, "Form over Function".


ED-209's weapons consist of three 20 mm machine guns (two on the left arm, one on the right) and a three-round rocket launcher on the right arm. The rocket launcher fires heat-seeking missiles.

Picture below shows ED's twin 20 mm guns on its left arm

Side profile of the menacing machine

Close-up view of the 20 mm guns

One of the ED-209's key weaknesses is the design of its "feet"; it can move on a flat plane fairly well, but an attempt to navigate a staircase ended with the robot tumbling down and landing on its back, immobilized.

In RoboCop 2, a news report about the mass deployment of the ED-209 features the robot getting its foot caught in a manhole and collapsing.

The dome-shaped head of ED-209 is designed without eyes as eyes humanize the robot

A compartment behind the robot's head is equipped with twin launchers which could be loaded with either mortars or gas grenades for riot control situations. ED-209 can also swing its arms to knock enemies away. The ED-209 has the capabilities of speaking fluent English in a commanding tone (the voice is of RoboCop executive producer Jon Davison). When engaged in combat, however, ED-209 growls using the sound of a black leopard, in order to intimidate the enemy.

Craig Davies intentionally designed ED-209 with these huge hydraulics for the legs, to emphasize the redundancy and America's corporate culture of form over function.

The ED-209 also has a marked resemblance, especially the leg mechanics, to the AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport) "Scout Walker" or "Chicken Walker" of Star Wars, only on a smaller scale.


Check out all the details

ED-209's imposing figure in 1/6 scale, obviously designed with "Shock and Awe" affect in mind

ED-209's three-round rocket launcher on the right arm. The rocket launcher fires heat-seeking missiles.

Hot Toys' 1/6 scale ED-209 even has the red, yellow and black wires running alongside the right gun arm

ED-209 is supposed to have one 20 mm machine gun on the right arm but Hot Toys made a boo-boo and made the left and right arms identical i.e. with twin machine guns - oops

This incredible 1/6 scale machine was followed up by the 1/6 scale Power Loader (pictures here) as seen in the movie "Aliens (1986)" and the most recent Batpod (pictures here) from "The Dark Knight (2008)". This was to prove that Hot Toys indeed can make anything in 1/6 scale once they set their minds on it. Let's bring on RoboCain - now that'll be the icing on the cake!

Other ED-209s covered previously: Kenner's ED-260 (pictures here) and Kotobukiya's ED-209 mini figure (pictures here)