Let's start with the prime example of this, RoboCop a brutal satire directed by Paul Verhoeven, the original film satirises cut throat corporate culture and how turning a human being into a literal Frankenstein's monster can be so easily normalised. It is many ways a criticism of America itself.
It's 100% not a kid friendly film. But a few years later a cartoon got made of it, which was heavily sanitised, lasers replaced bullets, the setting was shifted much more into the sci-fi genre, the villains were more like supervillains from comics and often heavy handed analogues to the likes of the KKK.
Naturally kid friendly toys soon followed, I myself owned a few, included a replica of Robo's detachable arm cannon as seen in RoboCop 3. I also had a toy car version of the police cruiser based on the Ford Taurus based from the first film.
What other weird gems do you remember from this time period, ERA?
It's 100% not a kid friendly film. But a few years later a cartoon got made of it, which was heavily sanitised, lasers replaced bullets, the setting was shifted much more into the sci-fi genre, the villains were more like supervillains from comics and often heavy handed analogues to the likes of the KKK.
Naturally kid friendly toys soon followed, I myself owned a few, included a replica of Robo's detachable arm cannon as seen in RoboCop 3. I also had a toy car version of the police cruiser based on the Ford Taurus based from the first film.
What other weird gems do you remember from this time period, ERA?
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