Behold the power of social media and 80s action cinema: A group of Detroit residents have raised more than $50,000 to build a statue of RoboCop in the city’s downtown area. The craziest part? It only took them six days to do it.

Actually, scratch that: The nuttiest part of this story is how the statue came to be in the first place. On Feb.7, a Twitter user named MT sent a tweet to Detroit mayor Dave Bing insisting that the fictional crimefighter would make a wonderful ambassador for the embattled city. As MT wrote Bing, “Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & RoboCop would kick Rocky’s butt.” Bing thanked MT for the suggestion, but assured him (or her) that there were no plans to erect such a statue. For a reminder of why MT thought RoboCop could take Rocky, take a look at the “RoboCop” trailer below. Pretty hardcore for 1987, right?

By then, the tweet had already gone viral, earning national media attention and more than a few laughs. It also sparked a debate over the kind of image a statue like that would give Detroit — one side thinks it’s fun, the other believes it glorifies the city’s troubling crime statistics. In any case, the Twitter exchange led to a Facebook page and a kickstarter.com campaign that compelled more than 1,500 Detroiters to give an average of $17 apiece to the effort by Feb. 16. Crazier still, a local non-profit has donated land for the statue, and Bing’s spokeswoman even has told the Detroit Free Press that the mayor’s would consider offering public land to house it.

And what does MT, the tweeter who started this racket, think of what he or she has wrought? Apparently, MT saw “RoboCop” for the first time on Feb. 11 — and hated it. “That movie was AWFUL! Guess the bags on me!” MT wrote.

What fictional character would you pick to represent your city? Leave ‘em in the comments!