| C.O.P.S. | |
| Bulletproof | |
|---|---|
| |
| Real name: | Baldwin P. Vess |
| Background: | FBI Federal Agent |
| C.O.P.S position: | Founder and Commander in Chief of C.O.P.S. |
| Badge number: | ? |
| Trademark features: | Wears dark sunglasses and has a bullet resistant cybernetic torso hidden underneath his trench coat, yellow shirt, and narrow tie. |
| Extra specialty: | A strong inspiration to the C.O.P.S.; a selfless, dedicated leader who cares for his city, his job, and especially his men. |
| Significant episode appearances: | All episodes. Examples include “The Case of the BulletProof Waldo,” “The Case of the Stuck-Up Blimp,” “The Case of C.O.P.S. File #1,” “The Case of Big Boss’ Master Plan,” and “The Case of Big Boss’ Bye Bye.” |
| Voiced by: | Ken Ryan |
Hands down, Agent Baldwin P. "Bulletproof" Vess is the best federal agent there is. The founder and commander in chief of C.O.P.S. who utters his trademark battle cry, "It's Crime Fighting Time!" every time the moment of heading out to bust the bad guys is at hand. The greatest of all C.O.P.S., BulletProof (“Armoured” in the Brazilian version) is a human cyborg and an inspiration to the C.O.P.S. team. He’s extremely loyal and dedicated to his men, his city with all of its inhabitants, and his job, and never lets them down, not even once.
Unlike his Caucasian team mates, he is an African American who is the only C.O.P.S. officer to appear in each and every episode in the series. His way of doing detective work is second to none and has a mind that puts the mind of Sherlock Holmes to shame. He is easily distinguished by dark sunglasses he wears almost all the time (except on one occasion, when he’s in a hospital bed bandaged up like a mummy after being seriously injured in an accident set up by Big Boss’ Crooks in Part 1 of “The Case of C.O.P.S. File #1.” Afterwards, the only time when he’s seen with his sunglasses off is when he’s working at the desk in his office — two examples of this can be found in “The Case of the Big Bad Boxoids” and “The Case of the Missing Memory”).
He’s also distinguished by his trenchcoat yellow shirt, and narrow tie covering his stainless steel cybernetic armor suit that has a special computer jack, allowing him to control machines just by plugging himself into them. An example of this can be found in Part 2 of “The Case of C.O.P.S. File #1” where he tries to replenish the Ultimate Crime Machine’s energy before making a rough landing in front of the precinct. Also, he has special compartments located in the abdomen area of the torso that stores up special disks that can short circuit any robot or machine the crooks have up in their arsenal.
Examples of this can be found in The Case of the Bogus Justice Machine where Bulletproof uses the disks to destroy the instant justice robots sent to take him and his C.O.P.S. down by Vargas at the Vetrocon factory and in Part 2 of The Case of The Big Boss’ Master Plan, where Bulletproof uses one of his disks to destroy Dr. Badvibes’ remote control headband device that controls a fleet of high tech jet fighting planes. Bulletproof has short black hair and wears a yellow shirt with a narrow black tie, carrying a gun holster with a gun inside of his trenchcoat on his left shoulder. Sometimes he wears an orange hat, as shown in The Case of Big Boss’ Bye Bye.
Toy and Comic Book Portrayal
[1] In the toy version of him, Bulletproof is slightly different with a different designed trenchcoat which hides his torso that's partly covered with a yellow shirt and narrow tie on top and metal torso, hips and top part of his legs exposed on the bottom. He has brown pant legs and brown and white shoes. He carries a cap firing gun and a suitcase with a hand cuff attached to it. The card said that he got gunned down when he was so close into putting the Big Boss away.
In the comics, Bulletproof almost got blown away when Turbo Tu-Tone fires a bazooka at the precinct, causing an explosion that ripped through him, damaging about 75% of his body. He was given a cybernetic torso that saved his life. Especially from Berserko, Turbo, and Ms. Demeanor who tried to take him down with their arsenal, but they failed.
Major Highlights
The Case of C.O.P.S. File #1
Special Agent Baldwin P. Vess is sent to Empire City by Mayor Davis to take down one of Empire City’s most notorious criminals led by the criminal mastermind Big Boss. Unfortunately, Vess got injured badly by being sandwiched in between a getaway van posing as a moving van and a brick wall that collapsed on him and left for dead. Police Sergeant P.J. O'Malley and rookie Officer Donny Brooks discovers him and rush him to the hospital. While staying at the hospital, Vess tells Mayor Davis to send out some of his men from the ECPD on a special mission to round up the best law enforcers from all over the country to form a team that will help him fight back against Big Boss and his criminal thugs. Mayor Davis did just that. He sends out O’Malley (codename: LongArm) and Brooks (codename: Hardtop) to gather together Stan Hyde (codename: Barricade) from Detroit; David Harlson (codename: Highway) of the California Highway Patrol; Walker Calhoun (Texas Rangers, codename: Sundown); Susie Young (codename: Mirage) from San Francisco; Hugh S. Forward (codename: Bullseye) from Miami; Rex Pointer (codename: Bowser) and his robot dog, Blitz from Chicago and Colt Howards (codename: Mace) from Philadelphia for this special purpose. While recovering at the hospital, Baldwin encounters Berserko, Big Boss’ dim-witted nephew, and Rock Krusher, one of Big Boss' closest henchmen, who are sent by Big Boss to take him down.
Berserko fires away with his miniature machine gun, but thanks to Baldwin's new bulletproof torso, he resists the bullets, thus allowing Bulletproof (as he was called later on) to get the best of him. Rock Krusher, on the other hand, escapes to tell Big Boss that Berserko is arrested and Bulletproof is still alive and kicking, enraging him. His attention was soon turned to Dr. Badvibes' new invention, The Ultimate Crime Machine, a UFO-like vessel capable of carrying large buildings off of their foundation and carry them into the sky to be looted before being dropped off somewhere else, no matter where. But with these men and women, along with LongArm, Hardtop and Officer Tina Cassidy (codename: Mainframe from Colorado Springs) who along with Hardtop was later recruited to the team as a reward for helping them bring down the Ultimate Crime Machine, Special Agent Baldwin Vess (codename: Bulletproof) became the proud founder and commander in chief of C.O.P.S. and leads the C.O.P.S. team to their first great victory over the Big Boss and thwart the first of many of his crooked schemes.
The Case of the Bulletproof Waldo
In this episode, Bulletproof came face-to-face with a clone version of himself that Dr. Badvibes had created: a robotic clone that was controlled and operated by a small robot named Waldo who tried to use him to replace the real Bulletproof and assume the role as Commander in Chief of C.O.P.S. Turbo Tu-Tone sneaked into Bulletproof's green car and seized control over it, leaving Bulletproof trapped inside it all the way to his garage, where Turbo used a large power magnet to pin Bulletproof way up in the air.
Then, Waldo went to the precinct and assume the role of Bulletproof with Big Boss and Badvibes keeping a close watch on him through the monitor. When the coffee is brought out for the C.O.P.S. to drink, Waldo, out of curiosity, splashes hot coffee in his ear for an unpleasant experience to see what coffee is like. He didn't like it at all. He smashes the cup on the table. The C.O.P.S. look up and Waldo gestures them that everything is fine.
He then tries to pet Blitz, Bowser’s robot dog companion, who came in wanting attention. Blitz, knowing the real Bulletproof, became the only C.O.P.S. member who can easily identify Waldo as a faker. He growls and barks at him when Waldo tries to reach out to pet him (or more likely short circuit him). Bowser goes to calm him down and brings him over to check on Blitz’s circuitry only to see nothing wrong with him. That’s when he hears a distress signal coming from Blitz being given out by the real Bulletproof, who sends out a distress signal from his cybernetic torso.
Mainframe complains to Bowser about Bulletproof bossing the team around. This gives Bowser the suspicion that there is an impostor roaming around the precinct and the signal coming from Blitz is a distress signal coming from the real Bulletproof. He's is in trouble. At once, Bowser and Blitz race off to rescue the real Bulletproof who is still being held inside Turbo’s garage.
As Bowser and Blitz track down where the signal is coming from, Turbo, at Big Boss’ orders, tries to dispose the real Bulletproof by sending a small robotic insect to dismantle his robotic body chip by chip while he goes out to rob a bank.
Fortunately, Bowser and Blitz arrived right in the nick of time. Blitz catches the bug and destroys it while Bowser frees Bulletproof from a huge magnet and together, the three C.O.P.S. race back to the precinct to oust the faker, who hears an incoming report from Mainframe about a bank robbery in progress. Waldo declares the report a fake and orders the team not to respond. When the C.O.P.S. protest, Waldo starts yelling at them, threatening to suspend if they don’t do as he says. Taken aback by the harshness of Waldo, the C.O.P.S. team suspect that this is not the Bulletproof they know and love. The real Bulletproof would never yell at them, restrain them from doing their jobs, nor give out harsh, cruel orders to them. Just then, the real Bulletproof, Bowser, and Blitz arrive.
“There the impostor! Arrest him!” Waldo demands. “No way!” Mainframe calls out defiantly. Blitz barks aggressively at Waldo. “I’ll show you who the impostor is!” the real Bulletproof yells back, and a fight between the two Bulletproofs ensues that ends shortly afterwards with Bulletproof tricking Waldo into flying through the window and falling five stories down to the concrete pavement, screaming like Big Boss all the way. With that, Bulletproof sends the faker to the scrap heap.
“Bulletproof?” Hardtop asks. Blitz runs up to greet Bulletproof and receive a warm stroke from him.
Bulletproof: “There is a robbery in progress at the Empire National Bank. Proceed there at once. IT’S CRIME FIGHTING TIME!”
The C.O.P.S. cheered! Bulletproof is back! And the team gleefully head off and arrive at the bank just in time to bag Turbo and send him all the way to the slammer.
Mainframe: “Welcome back, sir.”