Popverse's top stories

• Is the Supergirl teaser trailer already teasing a Man of Tomorrow connection? Because our Brainiac senses are tingling
• Watch now: Watch as Nickelodeon presents the Avatar: The Last Airbender 20th Anniversary Panel, featuring Dante Basco, Zach Tyler Eisen, Jack De Sena, Mae Whitman, Michaela Jill Murphy, from NYCC 2025
• The Amazing Digital Circus stars Lizzie Freeman, Michael Kovach, and Alex Rochon are coming to Seattle's ECCC 2026

When RoboCop hit theaters in 1987, filmgoers hadn’t seen anything quite like it. The sci-fi action flick blew audiences away with its unique production design and the memorable RoboCop suit.

Peter Weller, who plays the title role, believes that it’s a good thing the film was released in 1987, because it’s not the type of movie that can be produced in the current media environment. “You cannot make this movie today,” Weller said during a 2013 RoboCop panel for weSpark.

Paul Verhoeven, who directed the film, echoed the sentiment, stating that the movie’s dire financial situation helped push the entire crew creatively. “One of the most important things for making the movie was probably the economy of means that we had,” Verhoeven said. “That forces everybody to really be completely creative because the expensive solutions were just not there.

In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:

“We had to find it in another way, and I think the best example of that is when I started to do the movie, I was planning to have a production design like Blade Runner, because that was in my mind," he continued. "Something like that. And I was basically discussing that with John Davidson, and he said, ‘Listen Paul, you can have a wonderful production, or you can get a good Robosuit. You can choose, because we don’t have money for both.’ And that’s why all the emphasis came on the suit."

Despite what likely felt like pressures from the budgetary constrictions, Verhoeven now feels like it all worked out to the movie's benefit. "It forced you to become extremely creative to achieve what was in the script and I think that the movie benefited by that rigorous economic approach put on the table, and I’m very thankful for that," he said.

Get your wide-shoulder blouses and your Members-Only jackets, and go back in time with Popverse's Made in 87. Highlights include:

• Marvel Comics killed the X-Men in 1987 to reset the franchise - but it didn’t stick
• The Full House cast addresses some of the series’ biggest continuity errors
• How Spider-Man’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon was saved by a fired Marvel boss — and Ronald McDonald
• How NBC panicked after Diane left Cheers — and why Kirstie Alley’s casting sparked a quiet battle inside the hit show
• How Bart Simpson was quietly toned down from being "so mean" before The Simpsons' first episode, as revealed by his long-time voice actor Nancy Cartwright
• The 1987 Justice League reboot that made superheroes weird, hilarious, and unexpectedly human
• How The Golden Girls became a staple at gay bars in the 80s