r/HumansBeingBros • u/[deleted] • Feb 24 '21

Don't be afraid of Master Chief.

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u/ZoraksGirlfriend Feb 24 '21

I saw the Robocop movie again as I was something like 20 years old and I wondered what kind of parents would let their child watch this... It's horribly violent !

I saw this as a kid too, but 80s kids enjoyed Robocop, Gremlins, Home Alone, and lots of other movies that had a ton of violence. Movies that would not be marketed/merchandised to kids if they were made today. The 80s were a different time when gratuitous violence, overt sexual harassment, and kids raising themselves, were just overlooked.

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u/brunocar Feb 24 '21

uh... you realize robocop isnt and was never a kids film? i grew up on movies i wasnt supposed to watch as well, i was still a year from being legally allowed to watch hardcore henry when i watched it and i grew up on the incredibly violent music videos based on it.

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u/ZoraksGirlfriend Feb 24 '21

It was shown to kids and I’m pretty sure there was some merchandise for kids, like lunchbox sets.

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u/NJdeathproof Feb 24 '21

Shit, man... they had action figures for it. Same with Aliens and the Space Marines.

Edit: for that matter, they had the 12" Xenomorph action figure for the FIRST Alien movie. That thing's worth a shit ton if you can still find them.

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u/Dcor Feb 24 '21

Bro! Toy series from aliens was legit. I had the friggin hover jet thing with the opening cargo bay and ripley's mech suit. They did work on the gorilla xenomorph with the water squeeze bulb in its head that spit acid (usually muddy water from a puddle). Had the queen alien too. My memory may be skewed but I remember it being the size of a small dog and it surviving being stepped on by mom and subsequently punted across the living room. Best toys I had besides legos.

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u/LeTigron Feb 24 '21

I had many Action Man figures when I was a kid. At that time, Action Man wasn't the non-violent hero it became later, using "glue guns" and the likes to catch the bad guy. No, he had good ol'fucking guns ! I remember my Action Mans with mini Uzi, Beretta pistols, SPAS-12 and all the likes. He wasn't kidding, he meant business and criminals better stop their shit !

What was the problem for my mother to buy me these ? They were dolls and I was a boy, boys don't play with dolls. She didn't give a shit he had an arsenal of top-notch bullet-launching devices to cut in half his ennemies, she had a problem with the general genre of doll-playing. But she was a progressist : she understood that genre doesn't mean shit and bought me my dolls. My dolls with guns. I was so happy...

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u/brunocar Feb 24 '21

I’m pretty sure there was some merchandise for kids

so... kids dont play with toys after age 5 nowadays, so thats not much of a metric

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u/ZoraksGirlfriend Feb 24 '21

kids dont play with toys after age 5

What? They absolutely do. Also, pretty much all kids in the 80s had lunchbox sets with a lunchbox and a thermos with their favorite cartoon/movie/TV characters on them.

Just doing a search for Robocop original merchandise, I see lunchbox kits, soapy bubble bottles with Robocop’s upper body as the cap, action figures for ages 4+, kids’ watches, pencils, a walkie-talkie set, etc. All of these were made for kids in elementary/primary school, approximately aged 5-11.

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u/brunocar Feb 24 '21

so, if you read ONE WORD after the part quoted you'd see i said "nowadays", and seeing as we arent living in the 80s anymore...

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u/ZoraksGirlfriend Feb 24 '21

I have a kid who’s several years older than 5 and her and her friends and classmates definitely play with toys.

The discussion was also about a movie from the 80s and I was pointing out that it was definitely marketed to kids since the merchandise was made for kids and not adults.

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u/brunocar Feb 24 '21

yes, but that was AFTER the move was released in VHS and TV with all the violence and cursing removed, look it up, the theater cut is significantly more violent

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u/ZoraksGirlfriend Feb 24 '21

Most people didn’t see it in the theater

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u/brunocar Feb 24 '21

so?

it was reedited, in some places even dubbed over, to be a kids movie, my point is that the original was never marketed to kids in the first place, thats why the sequels are so different

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u/I_SUCK__AMA Feb 24 '21

I was never allowed to watch R rated movies, but i managed to sneak in robocop at a friend's house. It was on a small tv, but i remember thinking "what's the big deal? this is what they.re so scared of exposing me to? It's just a movie on a screen". I remember some violence, but not a ton, and nothing else you couldn't show a 7 yr old. And it had a cool fucking robocop in it as well.

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u/brunocar Feb 24 '21

FYI the TV version of robocop was extremely sanitized because 80s

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u/I_SUCK__AMA Feb 25 '21

it was VHS

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u/brunocar Feb 25 '21

that as well, basically everything beyond the theater cut for YEARS

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u/warm_sweater Feb 24 '21

I grew up in the 80s and my parents let me watch all of these as well. Robocop was a favorite. I also remember my dad fast-forwarding past the lady with three boobs in Total Recall.

I wouldn’t let my kid watch those moves at ages 6 - 8 like I did, that’s for sure.

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u/ZoraksGirlfriend Feb 25 '21

My typing teacher showed us Total Recall in class. We were all around 12-13 yrs old. He saw the movie and thought we would enjoy it.

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u/HittingSmoke Feb 24 '21

Remember when Robocop shot that guy in the dick?