Heroic Warriors

King Randor: Heroic ruler of Eternia (1987)

King Randor, like the Sorceress, is a character that originates very early in the MOTU mythos, but who didn’t get an action figure until the tail-end of the toyline.

King Randor has his origins in the the November 1982 DC Comics story, β€œFate is the Killer”. The king and queen aren’t given names, but as Prince Adam’s parents, these are clearly the precursors to the Randor and Marlena characters that would be fleshed out later. Randor is a generic looking stock medieval king character, old enough to have white hair, and perpetually disappointed in his irresponsible son, Prince Adam.

In the following issue, β€œTo Tempt the Gods” (December 1982), the king appears again, still without a name. In this issue he’s quite disappointed, even disgusted with Adam – to the point of feeling like he’d prefer He-Man to be his heir rather than Adam.

The unnamed king appears in a single panel in the next issue, β€œThe Key to Castle Grayskull” (January 1983).

Image source: He-Man.org

Meanwhile, in the Masters of the Universe Bible, completed by Michael Halperin on December 1, 1982, Adam’s father became known as King Randor and is given a backstory, along with the queen, Marlena:

Marlena staggered to her feet and lurched to the captains chair. She called out to the others. No one answered and when she looked only the spacesuits remained mute, empty and wrinkled. Little time remained to brood as the shuttle shot into the Eternian Ionsphere glowing red, yellow and white. She nosed the craft up and bounced off the layer of air slowing the vehicle for a smoother re-entry. Marlena couldn’t spot any runways for the shuttle so she aimed the ship at the only clear spot she saw — a long meadow in a lush, green valley.  The space craft hit the ground, its landing gear crumpled on impact and it sank to its belly skidding, pitching and crashing to a wrenching stop.

Unconscious, Marlena couldn’t know the helping hands pulling her out of the wreckage and carrying her to the royal palace of the reigning king of Eternia, the young and handsome RANDOR.

For several days she slept in the palace and each day Randor sat by her bedside and waited for her to wake. All the royal physicians and wizards provided potions and spells in order to insure her well-being and soon color stirred in Marlena’s cheeks. On the seventh day her eyes fluttered open and the first sight she saw was Randor’s rugged, handsome face. A spark flew between them as he reached out his fingers to touch her hand and they both smiled.

Skeletor waved his staff and a charge of energy sprang forth rolling back a huge boulder from one wall uncovering a screen. A wave of his hand and a picture swam into view — a picture of Eternia then that of King Randor and Marlena. At the sight of the former captain, the trio snarled and clenched their fists – and it wasn’t lost on Skeletor.

King Randor made Marlena his queen and three years later she bore an heir to the throne of Eternia — a son, PRINCE ADAM. He was handsome and imbued with his mother’s spirit of adventure and his father’s courage. As a child he had the run of the palace playing tricks and practical joke on his teachers and the nobles of the court.

This backstory was created as a guide for both the Filmation cartoon and printed media. In print media, Randor was almost always very much in the background, but he would be further fleshed out in the Filmation cartoon (more on that later).

We get a bit of this backstory in “To Tempt the Gods”, where we learn that Marlena crash landed on Eternia from Earth. We also get a look at a younger King Randor:

King Randor pops up in a few different places prior to the advent of the animated series.

Masters of the Universe Audio Story (Kid Stuff, 1983)

In order to protect his true identity and thus make it harder for Skeletor to destroy him, He-Man lives a double life as Prince Adam, playful son of King Randor and Queen Marlena. Even now, as we speak, Prince Adam is playing with his pet tiger, Cringer. In the beautiful gardens that surround his father’s castle, he and his feline friend romp in the tall grass, happy and care-free, unaware that as He-Man, he is about to face the most difficult and dangerous challenge of his life – a life and death struggle with Skeletor. The outcome of which will determine the fate of the planet, and perhaps the entire universe.

Castle Grayskull (Kid Stuff, 1983)

He-Man & Battle Cat (Kid Stuff, 1983)

The Power of Point Dread (1983)

In this story illustrated by Alfredo Alcala, the king (not mentioned by name here) has his DC comics look. There is no hint that Prince Adam exists in this story.

The Ordeal of Man-E-Faces (1983)

This version of Randor in the DC-produced second wave of minicomics follows the general look of the 1982 DC series, albeit this time with a purple robe:

The Menace of Trap Jaw (1983)

The Magic Stealer (1983)

King Randor was, at one point in his development, called King Miro – this is briefly mentioned in the Filmation Series Guide, and I believe he is also depicted visually. The series guide reflects earlier designs for almost all of its characters, and here Randor/Miro again looks much like he did in the DC comics. Thanks to DuΕ‘an M. for reminding me of the “Miro” name in the comments.

The name Miro is also used in the 1984 UK Annual, which tended to draw from much earlier source material. Thanks to Jukka Issakainen for pointing this out.

Filmation redesigned the character quite dramatically. He’s depicted as being much younger, and wears a blue jacket over a red tunic, with orange tights and blue slippers.

Randor was a frequent character on the show, occasionally playing a lead role in stories like “The Rainbow Warrior” and “Prince Adam No More.” He was voiced by Filmation president Lou Scheimer.

Randor’s look in the post-Filmation minicomics is all over the place. Sometimes he follows the DC look, sometimes he has something like the Filmation look, and in the case of the Leech and Mantenna minicomics, bizarrely, he has pink hair:

The Golden Book stories tend to give Randor several unique looks, only occasionally referencing existing, established designs for the character:

The action figure, released in late 1986 but grouped by Mattel in the 1987 wave of figures, was initially sold through a buy-three, get-one-free mail-away offer. He looked like a kit-bashed version of the cartoon character, sticking to the Filmation colors but otherwise grabbing whatever parts were handy to make a passable King Randor. He uses the basic He-Man body, but with Jitsu’s armor, and the Castle Grayskull spear in gold. The only new parts are his head, crown and cape. Jitsu’s armor was made to fit over a slightly flatter chest, so King Randor’s armor had to be warped outward to work with the He-Man buck. The figure was designed by David Wolfram.

Image source: InfinityToyzOKC on Twitter

There are a couple of early models or prototypes of Randor. This one (from a French MOTU catalog) looks hand-painted, but otherwise looks just like the final toy, albeit with much brighter, shinier gold paint:

Image via Grayskull Museum

Another version appeared in the US Mattel dealer catalog.Β It looks like a factory piece, except his armor is painted just like the original Jitsu armor. Perhaps this was an early factory sample, where they had mistakenly used the original paint mask on the armor instead of the revised version for Randor. Or, his armor could have gotten lost somehow, and Jitsu’s armor was used as a quick replacement for the photo:

The cross sell artwork for King Randor is closely based on the final toy, although the work itself is a bit rough in places:

Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen. Artwork by Bruce Timm.

Despite Randor’s release being somewhat low effort, this is actually my favorite look for the character. He looks much more battle ready than either the DC or Filmation designs, and in a place like Eternia, it makes sense to have a king who can kick butt when needed.

Once the look of the toy had been established, the minicomics that followed started adhering to the Mattel design, except he was given a gray beard/hair.

The Search for Keldor

In this story, it is hinted that Skeletor (aka Keldor) is actually King Randor’s long-lost brother, although Randor himself does not know that Keldor is now Skeletor.

Revenge of the Snake Men!

Enter: Buzz-saw Hordak!

King Randor appears in a few posters by Earl Norem and William George:

King Randor also appeared in the Star Comics, which followed the look of the character as he appeared in the Mattel catalog (thanks to Øyvind M. for pointing this out):

However, in the Commodore 64 Masters of the Universe game, the DC design was used:

King Randor’s long, slow evolution makes him a little more interesting to research than many other, more prominent characters in Masters of the Universe.Β  As a kid, I think I was dimly aware that a King Randor figure had been made, but I never saw one in person.Β Β Nevertheless, his reuse of parts actually makes him seem instantly familiar now.

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14 thoughts on “King Randor: Heroic ruler of Eternia (1987)

  1. Really insightful look at the character’s history. I loved how in the 2002 series they used a lot of this with the character. He was already a big deal when I was a kid during the original run, but he became all the more compelling later on. As for the toy, I only ever saw him once in a store as the line was winding down. I think around the same time the movie characters, and meteorbs were out. Kind of regret not getting him then, because he’s one of those more expensive vintage toys these days. At least if you find him with all of the armor, cape, and accessories.

  2. Another great blog (so many I’ve got to still put by thoughts in on). As has already been pointed out now, Miro was an early used name for the character (and for some reason, I always assume to be his name in the second wave mini-comics where the character isn’t named). Also note that in the Filmation series “Search for the Past”, the name of (King) Miro is given as King Randor’s father, a nice little tie (even explanation if you’re to use a MOTU Classics “patch it all up” continuity logic).

    In term of the figure, I think one reason he came out at the tail end of the line was much due to the fact that he was cheap to produce. As has been covered both on this blog site I believe, and elsewhere, the final wave had a slightly more limited budget, where have of the characters were designed/chosen as they needed little new tooling (see also: Scare Glow, Ninjor, etc.). It certainly does have a slightly thrown-together look, almost as a quick custom job, yet somehow it works. Though you’d have thought they could have stretched to give him a decent, new staff at least, instead of the lazy Grayskull spear they went for.

    Randor always felt slightly “in limbo” toywise to me as, of course, he didn’t have his wife Queen Marlena to accompany him. Not till many years later… πŸ™‚

    1. Thanks for the comments, I always appreciate what you have to say! Yes, the final wave is an interesting mix of brand new molds (Mosquitor, Snake Face, Sorceress) and heavy reuse (Randor, Clamp Champ, Ninjor, Scare Glow).

      Good point about Miro – Filmation didn’t let the name go to waste πŸ™‚

  3. I never saw Randor in stores, either. (The only figures I ever saw from that final wave were Clamp champ, Extendar, and Rio Blast.)
    The 2002 series features the gold standard for Randor, in my mind. Shame that we still haven’t gotten a figure based on any of his designs from that series. Any of them would be far preferable to the Filmation version, for me.

  4. I think the toy version has one major flaw which I think the back of the box art highlights, though some versions can just about pull it off.. Big noble king. Long Flowing cape, Strong body arm.. Furry knickers and tights.

  5. Are there any known examples of the original mail-in packaging? I’m wondering if he was on a card or more likely in a baggie inside a brown cardboard mailer.

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