Harold Cooplowski

"No one trashes Jersey City!! Uhh... But me. *grin*"

- Coop, episode 26.

Harold Cooplowski, better known as Coop, is the main protagonist of Megas XLR, created by Jody Schaeffer. He is a young man in his adulthood who stumbled upon a fragment of time one day in the junkyard. Alongside Jamie and Kiva he does what he has to do to enjoy a regular day in Jersey City, unless an alien has something to say about that. That being said, he turns out to be the defender of Earth by driving his car.

Background
As a young child, Coop grew up within Jersey City with his mother, living in a hip house with a basement. Spending most of the time in his basement, Coop used the television and his gaming consoles as a form of entertainment to pass his time. As time passed, his gaming skills greatly improved, to a point where he could compete in gaming competitions, and he was often referred as a 'nerd' for such. Nevertheless, he found himself with lots of different flavors for his characters that made him much more unique than the average nerd, being a huge fan of Rock and Metal themed music, and a guy who can't miss a wrestling show. By age ten, he begins to gain massive weight from over-eating, slowing becoming a "couch potato" (and being proud of it). Little did he care that he was being laughed at by most girls around him in embarrassing situations, such as attempting to climb bookcases, playing a dancing game, and even unintentional jogging. Spending most of his teenage life with Jamie, he built a strong relationship with him, developing a  "Big guy, small guy" relationship, hanging out, finding new games to play, watching shows on the television together, or finding a new useful piece of junk at Goat's junkyard. Upon reaching his adulthood, he began competing at multiple competitions, such as gaming, eating, car shows, and bowling.

Appearance
Coop is a overweight Caucasian man with spiky blond hair, sideburns, and a spiky goatee. He's 6'6", assumed weight is at over 300 pounds. He wears a white t-shirt with a badge with the number 12 colored black, a red plaid vest, blue jeans with a brown belt with gold buckle with red inside and flames, and a sliver chain on it, and black boots.

Test Drive
Coop invites Jamie casually to see what he's been working on, and reveals the giant robot he found. Explaining to Jamie how he managed to get it, he says he was visiting Goat's junkyard, curiously looking for interesting junk. As he nags Goat about the value of each item, Goat puts a final price of two dollars on all items. As he continues to search (while competitively debating who's strongest, the Lochness Monster or Bigfoot) he discovers a giant robot, codenamed M.E.G.A.S.. Excited by his discovery, he instantly accepts Goat's two dollars offer. Lost in thought of tweaking of Megas, he shows Jamie dozens of buttons, not knowingly what some of them even do. Questioned by Jamie of what's the best he could do with it for amusement, Coop thinks of stealing himself hefty supplies of food, forcing wrestling in Roman-style, and chasing ice cream trucks. Driven by daydream, Coop pushes a trigger that set off a very loud alarm, strong enough to signal Kiva. He is shocked by the appearance of Kiva and her drones who instantly demanded he hand over Megas, implying that the robot belongs to her. Not knowing Kiva's past, Coop responds that he deserves to keep it as he found it, declining her request and picking a fight with her. Nagged by Jamie that he should quit, Coop tells him that he can do it, already knocking out one drone quickly. As Coop defeats the second drone, Kiva ties up Megas, which Coop easily unbinds. Excited at seeing somebody else controlling a robot besides him, Coop sarcastically compliments Kiva's girly piloting skills in a sexist manner. As Kiva explains about the Glorft and why she needs Megas back, Coop does not follow her story and barely believes it. Trying to calm Jamie from Kiva's insult, Coop accidently pushes a button, unleashing a giant blaster from Megas' chest that crashes a building on Kiva's robot. As Coop hastely thinks he's done, Kiva charges and grabs Megas' control unit. Exited at the chance for hand to hand combat for the first time, he grabs on to his controller and attempts to try a combo from one of his video games, which greatly succeeds and sends Kiva's robot falling uncontrollably. As Kiva curiously wonders how an inexperienced pilot defeated her, he explains to her that he spent his free time playing games. As Coop's lost in memories, Kiva hijacks Megas only to be pushed into the back seat quickly, and Coop explains to her what upgrades (which could also be taken as downgrades, in Kiva's eyes) he's given to Megas.

Questioned about what he's done to the Time Flux Unit, Coop wrongfully tells Kiva that he couldn't "fix" that part, instead destroying it for amusement. As Kiva is saddened by the fact that she cannot pilot Megas anymore, Coop explains that Megas was completely broken as he found it, rebuilding it was the only option. She then gives Coop permission to control it and telling him that whether he likes it or not, he is the only hope that Earth has left against the Glorft, with training coming from Kiva alongside. Not wanting this additional burden on his shoulders, Coop refuses both protection for Earth and training, telling Kiva that he already trained himself, before accidentally releasing a Tachyon Beacon to announce his location.

Surprised by the Glorft, Coop welcomes the fame and gives in to Kiva's backstory. Instantly accepting to fight the Glorft, he sends a rocket which accidently destroys a PoP music satellite. Unfazed, Coop gets serious and begins to fight. Successfully handling a big group of enemies so well, his strength is honored by Gorrath.

As he carelessly destroys the city and most units, Coop is ready for anything. As Gorrath summons the UMD, Coop admires it, instantly asking Kiva if he could get one too, in a jokingly manner. Mocked by Glorath, Coop tries to fight back with "The bigger they are, the harder they fa-" only to be poked by the UMD and sent flying. Just as the UMD is nearing to smash the control unit, PoP's satellite lands on the UMD, leaving Glorath surprised. Coop uses the chance to poke it back. As the Glorath retreats, Coop jokingly tells him to run back to his mommy. Starved from the fight, Coop questions if anybody wants a burger... or five.

Battle Royale
Because of Coop's piloting skills, Magnanimous comes to Earth and makes an offer with Coop so that he could participate in the Galactic Combat Championship Federation. Interested in getting the winner's belt, Coop agrees and the gang goes to the GCCF space station. Coop defeats Super Nova and advances to the next round. When he gets to the third round, Coop is told by Magnanimous to lose the match. Coop refuses and wins the match. As soon as the fourth round begins, Coop manages to gain the advantage, but Magnanimous tells him that he captured Kiva and Jamie and he will throw them into a Quantum Singularity if he wins. Coop is forced to throw the fight, but Kiva and Jamie escape and enter Megas, allowing Coop to win. Magnanimous furiously unleashes all of his fighting robots, but Coop easily defeats them. Suddenly, Coop is attacked by Magnanimous in his own robot. Magnanimous blasts Coop with sonic blasts, but Coop uses Megas's sonic weapon, the Jammer. The Jammer, in combination with Coop's bad singing, defeats Magnanimous and causes severe damage to the station. Coop then uses Megas's energy sword to slash Magnanimous off his robot and into the Quantum Singularity. Coop obtains the championship belt and escapes the exploding station. On Jamie's suggestion, Coop sets course to the planet of the Space Amazons.

All I Wanted was a Slushie

Coop while doing Kiva training tests gets thirsty because of the temperature and rushes through training thus piloting at super speed and hitting a cloacked space ship containing a prisoner REGIS.

Relationships
Jamie - Coop and Jamie go back to when they were in elementary school. Jamie often came to Coop's house, playing video games, or watching Coop play video games while he read a magazine or found some other way to entertain himself. The two are best friends, although Jamie is not above using Coop to his advantage when the opportunity presents itself. Coop is seemingly aware of Jamie's selfish and opportunistic nature, but looks past these bad habits due to their history, though he is not above putting Jamie in his place should he go too far. Coop even got the attention of a girl, in order to help Jaime get laid as well as to let him borrow the car (despite the the flashbacks with him not showing up at need). When Jaime was "captured" by the Ultra Cadets he showed great concern for Jaime (imagining not being supported by Jaime while eating). Despite that Coop does acknowlegde that Jaime is a lazy coward who screams like a girl, ( in DMV:Departament of Megas Violetions he told the DMV driving coach to stop screaming like a girl), thinking he was Jaime "Stop screaming like JAIME!"

Kiva - Coop often relunctantly follows Kiva's orders to train for the future conflict against the Glorft, typically because of the misadventures they experience along the way. He is shown to respect Kiva, but rarely takes her seriously due to her uptight nature, and enjoys exposing her to the "wonders" of the 21st century such as junk food and television.

Gorrath - Gorrath is Coop's arch nemesis and they both show major hostility towards each other, usually flinging insults at one another. Coop usually refers to Gorrath as, "the squid, dirty squid"

Goat - Coop and Goat apparently know each other, prior to the series pilot, the two are usually friendly. Coop thinks that Goat is a little crazy.

Coop's Mother - Coop and his mother have a typical mother-son relationship, although she seemingly coddles him despite him being well into adulthood.

Skippy - Coops younger cousin. They do not get along well but coop still tries to show off to him when ever he can.

Tiny - Coop and Tiny have a friendship that revolves around cars and video games, they know each other prior to the series plot. They like to compete against each other.

Personality and Skills
Being a very laid back and care-free person, Coop displays that he doesn't look before he leaps, aside from the things which he loves, which are food, music, bowling, gaming, television and anything that involves him being entertained. Unlike Jamie, he shows very little interest in the opposite gender, seemingly more focused on simpler pleasures in life. Shown to be very persistent on getting what he wants, Coop would focus on fixing the problem and won't back away until the very end, regardless on how dangerous or immature it might be. He at times displays an affinity for music, but has no talent for it, with his singing ability being capable of inducing physical pain. He dreamed of being a wrestler, but couldn't compete in such as his body limited him, at least without a giant robot. Being famous was an ambition, just the thought of having his own action figure made his eyes sparkle. Coop can be extremely blatant, loudmouthed, thoughtless, foolhardy and blind that all his actions usually result in consequences, but in general could be considered a nice guy who can be depended on to do the right thing when necessary.

Often underestimated physically, Coop has proved to have a lot of strength due to his weight, giving him a better body balance for certain situations such as managing to swing an extra large wrench for more than ten swings, and smashing his window door with a packing punch. However, when it comes to stamina, that's where Coop's weakness enters. Being an overweight adult limits his body to running and dancing, which usually ends up with him extremely exhausted.

As pilot of M.E.G.A.S, his true strength shines. Since he completely modified Megas for full optimization of gaming consoles, he is able to control it as if he was playing a video game, allowing him to take his gaming skill to fuller potential. Usually upgrading Megas every few days, he comes up with new modifications to destroy anybody who stands in his way. However, these modifications aren't always labeled correctly, might backfire, and some of them might not work, which usually goes to show how clumsy and carefree Coop can be. Nevertheless, he ends up finding the right button in the end. Some of his modifications are used so often that they even get names (such as "Save Jamie" lever).

Coop doesn't really look for trouble, trouble looks for him. As Coop progresses on with his casual life, certain enemies coming to Earth try to destroy it for their own self reason. In certain situations, Coop has to travel outside of Earth to solve an issue, often leading into more trouble. When he's tired of talking, and wanting to end the fight, Coop has a tendency to recklessly assault the target with the plethora of weapons in M.E.G.A.S's arsenal. However, despite Coop's good intentions, the result of his actions usually proves even more devastating than the problem he tries to eliminate in the process.

Albeit the fact that Coop shows various traits of recklessness and foolishness, he is shown to be a strategic planner, as shown in the series finale, where he devises a plan to trap his evil counterpart between dimensions. This shows that although Coop does not think straight, he does seem to show some intellectual thinking when in dire situations. He has more than once shown to be at his best when thinking on his feet, and can often improvise when necessary.

Trivia

 * According to the series' creator, had the show gone on, it would have been shown that Coop is somehow responsible for the creation of the Glorft.
 * It is strange that he never gets arrested by the authorities or made to pay compensation no matter how many times he wrecks the city. Megas did get impounded at one point however for wrong parking, which is also very strange since how the impound lot manages to tow the entire giant robot without any help from the military.
 * However, in one of the Cartoon Network's Action Pack comics, a Megas XLR mini comic title: "School of Wreak", Coop destroys Jersey City while battling a robot and made to either pay a heavy compensation or do a day of community service, which Coop does the latter.
 * According to the series' creators he is based on a guy they knew from Jersey.
 * No matter how many times he saves the Earth, nobody seems to know about him. Furthermore, the government never seem to aware of his destructive activities.
 * There are speculation of Coop being homosexual or asexual due to his preference over entertainment and food over women in majority of the episodes, although he occasionally makes offhand references to an interest in "picking up chicks", debunking the theory.
 * His name is of Polish origin.
 * Every episode he has pre-battle rants
 * Every episode he also has flashbacks

In Other Languages

 * Danish and Swedish: Kurt
 * Polish: Knup
 * Portuguese: Cara