Mirage (C.O.P.S.)

Mirage 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

As her last name suggests, Mirage is an Asian-American, though it is unclear what her background is. Mirage looks a lot like a normal police officer compared to the other C.O.P.S. But what makes her unique is the way she is able to do undercover operations and infiltrate the criminal underworld. She serves the C.O.P.S. team as a spy, being capable of disguising herself as other people and sneaking into the criminal world to find out what Big Boss and his cronies are up to. There she is able to learn of their plots and report back to headquarters of their plans. Sometimes she is caught and has to be rescued. But most of the time she is able to make it out okay and make successful arrests as well.

Mirage is only seen in the cartoon. She was never part of the toy series, nor the comics (Ironically, She was mentioned [http://s90690880.onlinehome.us/comics/COPS02-COPS02.jpgin issue 2 on this profile page] , though.). In the comics, however, Big Boss has been known to erroneously address Nightshade as "Mirage" even though Mirage is actually another character and one much different than Nightshade.

Character Highlights

The Case of Berserko's Big Surprise

Mirage is able to work her magic in undercover operations in this episode when she disguises herself as one of Big Boss's trusted spies sent to help Berserko steal the Cornucopia Bridge as a birthday present for his uncle, even though Big Boss, upon hearing about it, is none too pleased. Big Boss shouts out telepathically, "BERSERKO, YOU BUMBLING BUFFOON!!!!" But his idiotic nephew assumes he's much happy with this "gift" Berserko is giving him and proceeds to use the world's largest balloon to haul the bridge up to Big Boss. However, Mirage, after Berserko won her trust and allowed her to help with the operations, switched the explosives Berserko is using to loose up the bridge with firecrackers and set it off, causing chaos and scattering the crooks everywhere. Then, Mirage revealed her true self, trying to arrest Berserko. He got away, however, running all the way back to Big Boss' penthouse, where Big Boss ungratefully threw the birthday cake at him for his latest buffoonery.

The Case of The Crook With A Thousand Faces

Mirage can change herself into any person when she goes and does undercover work for the C.O.P.S. but not like Shifty, the shape-changing android who used his shape-shifting abilities to elude capture when he robbed a bank and escaped from Highway. Shifty's crime was recorded on tape thanks to the bank's security camera Bulletproof points to while he and his C.O.P.S. were investigating the scene of the crime. Mirage took the tape and carefully looked it over to see what kind of clues she'll find on it to help the C.O.P.S. solve the case. Highway intervenes to show off his latest invention, The Vanishing Spray. He sprays a sample on Mirage's right arm. But she didn't vanish. She smells it. It smelled horrible - and Highway just had to vanish on his own at Mirage's suggestion while the getting is good. Then, Shifty, lurking about, changed himself into Highway and went into the precinct and took Highway's place a moment later. Just as Mirage was able to figure out what is happening in the tape, Shifty changed back into his normal self, kidnaps Mirage, and took the tape with him. Mirage is then held captive at an old abandoned building where Big Boss and Dr. BadVibes discuss plans to have Shifty go and rob the Empire Mint. Meanwhile back at the precinct, Bulletproof, Bowser, Blitz and Highway arrived at the terminal to noticed that Mirage is missing from her chair. As they were wondering what happened to her, with Highway wondering if the vanishing spray really does work after all, Blitz's nose begin to detect the strong scent of Highway's ill-fated vanishing spray still lingering about. It left behind a trail for the C.O.P.S. to follow which will lead them straight to Mirage. Blitz followed smelly trail, with the C.O.P.S. following right behind him, all the way to the abandoned building where the C.O.P.S. were able to free Mirage and apprehend 2 normal crooks Big Boss has hired to watch over her. Mirage told her teammates of Big Boss' plan for Shifty to go out and rob the Empire Mint which is the C.O.P.S. team's next stop. At the Mint, Shifty steals a stamping print mold of a one dollar bill and hides it in his robotic body. He was able to fool the security guard by changing himself into George Washington and tries to sneak out of the mint with the stolen mold. But the C.O.P.S. arrived at the Mint and Shifty had to do some shape-shifting to try to escape from them. However, Blitz was able to find him and chased him, with the C.O.P.S. following right behind him, all the way to the city zoo. There, Shifty tries to escape capture by changing himself into various animals he sees at the zoo. But a run-in with Bulletproof causes him to overload and render himself into a baby panda before conking out. The C.O.P.S. retrieved the stolen stamp mold and brought it back to the mint. Knowing Shifty's criminal days are over, the C.O.P.S. have decided to reprogram him to only stay as a panda. Then, Mirage went to drop him off at the Empire City orphanage where Shifty spends his time entertaining children living there from then on.

External Links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVXawZJwyDA The Case of the Crook with a Thousand Faces Part 1] from YouTube
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCcvL2YyDSc The Case of the Crook with a Thousand Faces Part 2] from YouTube
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=018hnRTe3X4 The Case of the Crook with a Thousand Faces Part 3] from YouTube