Hardtop (C.O.P.S.)

Hardtop is a cartoon character in the C.O.P.S. (Central Organization of Police Specialists) series from Hasbro which ran from 1988-1989.

Character profile

Hardtop (renamed as "Gallant" in Brazilian version) is a rookie police officer who works alongside LongArm as his partner. He helped to form the Central Organization of Police Specialists, and thwarted the first of many of Big Boss' criminal schemes with his highly skilled driving. As a result, Hardtop became a welcome addition to the C.O.P.S. team along with Mainframe. He is seen wearing a special driving suit in and out of a vehicle that's either colored dark blue in the cartoon, brown in the comics, or black in the toy series. He also wears a helmet with either a clear, glass type mask in the cartoon, or a solid mask with a vertical row of narrow openings on the front in both the comics and the toy series. Hardtop has a crush on Whitney Morgan, an ECTV news reporter and is an excellent driver of one of the most formidable battle vehicles in Empire City, "The Ironsides". "The Ironsides" is a powerful attack vehicle; shaded in blue, with twin machine guns on the top, a cockpit on the back for an additional cop to ride on, several window openings in the front, and is used to chase down the swiftest of getaway vehicles and puncture through the thickest of walls (usually with its 'RAM' decal on the prow of the front bumper prominently shown).

Character Highlights

The Case of the Stuck-up Blimp

Hardtop was once afraid of heights. In this episode, Hardtop had to struggle to conquer his fear of heights as he and BulletProof attend a benefit banquet for the rich and famous to raise money for charity being held on the Mountback, the most state-of-the-art blimp ever seen in the air in Empire City. As he came out of a tuxedo outlet with a rented tuxedo in hand, Berserko and Turbo Tu-Tone came into the store, only to ran out with 2 stolen tuxes they plan to wear at the banquet a moment later. Hardtop chase them up to the rooftop of a building, but his fear of heights prevented him from going further thus, allowing 2 crooks to escape.

Hardtop struggles to hide his fear of heights from Bulletproof while riding on the elevator to the blimp. Inside the blimp, he meets ECTV news reporter Whitney Morgan who is struggling to conduct interviews with the banquet attendees only to have a run in with Berserko who grabs her by the arm after she accidentally bumped into him, spilling the plate full of food he was holding; Berserko and Rock Krusher were posing as waiters to wait for the right moment to strike. Their plan is to hold up blimp by the orders of Big Boss and rob the guests of all their valuables. Bulletproof and Hardtop chased Berserko into the kitchen. There, Berserko fires his pistol to take the 2 C.O.P.S. down, only to get knocked out by a large, towering ice sculpture that was pushed towards him by Hardtop. Suddenly, Rock Krusher and his henchmen bursts into the kitchen to capture Hardtop and Bulletproof, tied them up, lock them up in a walk-in meat refrigerator, and discuss plans to loot the blimp. As Berserko and his henchmen rob the guests, Krusher will use his jackhammer to cut the cables and set the blimp free with the people inside it while Berserko, at Krusher's request, provide him with a large bag of food for him so he can have something to snack on when he comes home from the banquet.

Meanwhile, inside the walk-in fridge, Bulletproof broke loose from his bonds, frees Hardtop, and then radio his team at the 647th Precinct for backup. Mace, LongArm, and Highway quickly responds and head straight to the blimp where Hardtop and Bulletproof blast their way out of the fridge with Bulletproof's explosive disks and untied the chefs, who were bound by the crooks, who then took over the blimp and began stealing valuables from the guests. As Bulletproof goes after Krusher, Hardtop is ordered to let the rest of the team inside the blimp to stop the crooks and make the arrests. However, the cables that were attached to the blimp is cut loose by Rock Krusher, despite Bulletproof's efforts to stop him, causing the blimp to start floating away. But Hardtop conquers his fear of heights, with the encouragement and help from LongArm, Mace, and Highway, and attaches the blimp to the dock with the help of LongArm's powercuffs, paving a way for his teammates to storm inside the blimp and take out the trigger-happy crooks who vainly fought back with their arsenal array.

Meanwhile, Whitney struggles to interview Berserko who throws her camera droid, Beamer from the blimp and takes her hostage as he grabs hold of a bag of loot and heads to the window to meet up with Turbo arriving in a stolen cater plane to pick up the Crooks and make a getaway with the stolen loot. Berserko drops off Whitney at the edge of the blimp and makes his way inside the plane. Whitney tries to follow but, she falls off the blimp and clings to its edge for dear life, barely trying to hold on. Hardtop raced forward to rescue her in time and embrace her as she faints from fear when she looks down from the blimp to the city below. Like Hardtop at one time, she, too is afraid of heights. As he was holding onto Whitney, Hardtop sees Rock Krusher charging forward to tackle them, only to get caught by LongArm's powercuffs and placed under arrest along with the rest of the crooks except Berserko who only got away with Krusher's bag of food, much to the disappointment of Big Boss, who wanted his nephew to steal only cash and jewels, not the food. Turbo proceeds to beat Berserko up for another failed caper.

Whitney thanked Hardtop for rescuing her and asks him if he can help her find her camera robot who was thrown from the blimp by Berserko. But Beamer, who survived the fall in one piece, made his way back up to the blimp to find Whitney and take her away to do another assignment for the ECTV News. The C.O.P.S. team, in the end, commended Hardtop for saving the day and helping the team thwart the crooks' plan to loot the blimp. Hardtop could've never done it without his team, though, whom he gave the full credit to for helping him conquer his fear of heights so he won't have to deal with it anymore.

The Case of The Crime Circus

Hardtop is seen with LongArm, his partner in "The Case of The Crime Circus" chasing after a mischievous tomboy name Samantha (Sam) who was caught trying to steal a lady's wallet. He meets up with Dr. BadVibes disguised as The Ringmaster of the Mechanical Circus and tries to ask him a few questions, only to get sent down a trap door and subsequently into a large cage, where LongArm and Sam were eventually became trapped in as well. Roberto, one of BadVibes' evil robots, is assigned to guard the prisoners while BadVibes prepares for the big gold heist. When Sam tells the team about the robots handling money, LongArm whips up a dollar bill and trick Roberto into freeing the prisoners. Then, Hardtop and LongArm made a daring escaped from 2 large clown robots that was ordered by Badvibes to dispose of them once and for all. Then, the two C.O.P.S. radio Mainframe and Bulletproof for back-up and went after BadVibes and the clownmobile with Sam, who was captured by BadVibes again, being held inside as the evil scientist goes out to rob the Depository of its gold bars - only to get thwarted by Sam, who gave the clownmobile the ax, destroying it, and saving Hardtop and LongArm from being devoured by it in the end.

External Links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBrTeCMCo0 The Case of the Stuck-up Blimp Part 1] from YouTube
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIREnA2nng The Case of the Stuck-up Blimp Part 2] from YouTube
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OZplLswR7o The Case of the Stuck-up Blimp Part 3] from YouTube