King Randor

Mattel's Classics cards are clear that Randor was never meant to be king.

Both Masters of the Universe Classics cards agree on it. He is King Miro's second-born son. His older brother was removed from the line of succession, and the Council of Elders set aside Eternian law and gave the crown to Randor as a reward for ending a war. The stiff, dutiful, rule-following monarch of the cartoons is a man who holds his office by exception.

The vintage figure arrived very late. Randor was a 1987 carded release near the end of the vintage line, with the card front subtitle "Heroic ruler of Eternia". By then Filmation had been running him as a supporting character for four years, voiced by Lou Scheimer under the pseudonym Erik Gunden.

Filmation's Randor is the version this encyclopedia treats as canon. The 2002 series, Revelation and Revolution, Netflix's 2021 CG series and the 2026 film each have their own Randor, covered here as other versions of the character.

Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Like Father, Like Daughter (1983), 2:16 to 4:09, 1 minute 53 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.

Mattel wrote Randor twice for the Classics line: once for the base figure in 2009 and again for Eternos Palace King Randor. Both carry the card title "Heroic Ruler of Eternia" and the real name "Randor of the House of Miro". Neither is a reprint of the other, and the differences matter.

The base card opens: "Real Name: Randor of the House of Miro. King Miro's second born son, Randor came of age during the Great Unrest, a time when conflict returned to Eternia following the Count Marzo Uprisings and the subsequent betrayal by his half brother Keldor." The rest of that card has Randor appointed captain of the guard after his father disappears, leading Miro's troops against Keldor's rebellion, ending the war by fatally wounding Keldor and locking the evil warriors behind the mystic wall, and being made King by the Council of Elders for it.

The Eternos Palace card tells the same story differently, and opens: "Real Name: Randor of the House of Miro. Shortly after his father was thrown into Despondos by Count Marzo, Randor's older brother was banished from the Royal Palace, leaving Eternia without a king." That card goes on to keep Randor as Captain of the Guard, have him best Keldor in single combat and mortally wound him, order a mystic wall erected to bind Keldor and his warriors to the Dark Hemisphere, and receive the crown from a Council of Elders that agreed to set aside Eternian laws of kingship despite Randor not being the first born.

Four things separate the two cards. What happened to King Miro: the base card says only that his father disappeared, while the Eternos card is specific that Miro was thrown into Despondos by Count Marzo. Who the older brother is: the base card names Keldor as Randor's half brother and Randor as the second-born son, while the Eternos card says Randor's older brother was banished from the Royal Palace and then treats Keldor as a separate returning exile in the next clause, so the banished brother may or may not be Keldor. How Randor beat him: the base card has Randor wound Keldor and lock the evil warriors away himself, while the Eternos card has him win in single combat and then order a wall built. And fatal or mortal: the base card says "fatally wounding", the Eternos card says "mortally wounded", and Skeletor's own card says "mortally wounded" too. All three stop short of saying Keldor died, because Hordak's intervention immediately afterward is what turns the dying Keldor into Skeletor.

There is a generational echo in the base card that most summaries skip. Randor's post before the crown was Captain of the Guard, the exact rank Teela later holds under him.

Mattel gave Randor's wife two Classics cards of her own, Queen Marlena and Captain Glenn, and both give her real name as Marlena Glenn, an explorer from Earth who crashed on Eternia. The two disagree on the details of the crash, a dimensional rift on one card and a black hole on the other, but they agree on who pulled her out: a young Captain Randor, holding the same rank he held when he fought Keldor. The marriage predates the crown.

The Queen Marlena card adds the line no adaptation has fully used. It calls her "well aware of both Adam and Adora's dual identities and proud of her warrior twins," while Randor's own cards say nothing of the kind. The palace's running joke about a prince who is never around during an emergency has, on Mattel's cards, exactly one adult in on it, and it is not the king.