Mer-Man is the ruler of Eternia's undersea realms and the Evil Warrior who commands the sea. Mattel's own name for him is Squidish Rex, and Mattel's own bio says he did not choose Skeletor: he was forced into service after losing his kingdom.
Ocean warlord
Mer-Man was in the first wave of Masters of the Universe figures in 1982, and his vintage card front carries the same two-word treatment every early figure got: “Ocean warlord!” That phrase survived. Twenty-seven years later Mattel used it again, unchanged, as the card title on the Masters of the Universe Classics release.
What it does not tell you is which side of the word “warlord” he is on, and that turns out to be the whole question with this character.
The Filmation series had no doubts. Alan Oppenheimer voices him from 1983, and the show casts him as the villain who owns any story that happens on or under water. In “Teela’s Quest” he captures Teela and intends her as a sacrifice. In “Search for the VHO” he disrupts a voyage to Selkie Island to get at a sonic device. In “City Beneath the Sea” the disappearance of King Randor’s food ships leads He-Man and Man-At-Arms into an undersea city as captives. He is also in the room for the big ensemble villain pieces, “Diamond Ray of Disappearance” and “Evil-Lyn’s Plot” among them.
His screen time is modest by the standards of the Evil Warriors. The Filmation run gives him well under twenty appearances across 130 episodes, against Beast Man’s several dozen. He is a specialist, brought in when the plot goes to sea.
Squidish Rex, and the bio that makes him a victim
The Classics cardback, released in 2009, does something to Mer-Man that Mattel did not do to any other Evil Warrior:
Real Name: Squidish Rex. Ruler of the undersea realms of Eternia, Mer-Man was forced to serve in the armies of Skeletor after his kingdom was destroyed in a battle with rival ocean clans.
Mattel, Masters of the Universe Classics cardback.
Three things in there are worth pulling out.
He was forced. Not recruited, not bought, not persuaded. The card says his kingdom was destroyed in a battle with rival ocean clans and that he was compelled into Skeletor’s armies afterwards. Beast Man joined Keldor. Trap Jaw was freed from prison by Keldor and later fought him for the top job. Tri-Klops was recruited and presumably paid. Mer-Man is the one who did not have a choice.
His enemies are other sea peoples, not the surface world. The war that ruined him was between ocean clans. Skeletor is not the antagonist of Mer-Man’s own story, he is the consequence of it.
And he does not want to be on land. The next line of the card says his allegiance with Skeletor brings him to the surface world more often then he would like, which is Mattel writing reluctance into a villain’s job description. The “then” for “than” is on the card as transcribed, and we preserve it.
The card closes by placing him in the sea of Rakash, lurking and waiting for Skeletor’s call to arms. The real name, Squidish Rex, sits in the Real Name field rather than in the bio prose.
A wording dispute you should know about before quoting
The Classics bio survives in two independent transcriptions, and they disagree on one word.
The transcription we treat as reliable, from the ItsAllTrue MOTU Classics bio checklist, spells the word for “under” in the sea of Rakash sentence correctly. An earlier pass from actionfigure411.com records it misspelled, and flags that as one of Mattel’s own printing errors.
No photograph of a Mer-Man card back has been located to settle it. That matters, because we have run this test on two other characters. On Teela and on Evil-Lyn, the actionfigure411 reading was checked against a photographed card and turned out to be a transcription slip both times, not a Mattel typo. Two out of two is a pattern and it points the same way here, but it is inference. Until a card back is photographed, treat the misspelling as unproven, and do not quote that sentence verbatim as evidence of a Mattel error.
Both transcriptions agree on “more often then he would like”, so that one is on firmer ground.
Kevin Conroy, and a credit that is easy to get wrong
In Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Mer-Man is voiced by Kevin Conroy. It was among the last roles he recorded before his death in 2022.
The credit gets misattributed a lot. Chris Wood voices Prince Adam and He-Man in Revelation, not Mer-Man. Beast Man is Kevin Michael Richardson. We are stating this plainly rather than repeating the error, because Conroy’s late work is exactly the sort of credit people look up.
In the 2002 series Mer-Man is voiced by Eli Gabay.
| Production | Voice |
|---|---|
| Filmation, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985) | Alan Oppenheimer Oppenheimer also voiced Skeletor and Man-At-Arms |
| He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002-2005) | Eli Gabay The 200x MYP series |
| Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021-2023) | Kevin Conroy One of Conroy's final roles. Frequently misattributed to Chris Wood, who voices He-Man, or swapped with Beast Man |
What is Mer-Man's real name?
Squidish Rex, per Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics cardback. It first appeared in 2009. The vintage 1982 card gave him only the subtitle "Ocean warlord!"
Is Mer-Man loyal to Skeletor?
Mattel's own bio says he had no say in it. He was forced to serve in the armies of Skeletor after rival ocean clans destroyed his kingdom, and the same card says surface duty takes him out of the water more often than he would like.
Where does Mer-Man live?
The sea of Rakash, per the Classics card. He is described as the ruler of Eternia's undersea realms, a title he held before he lost his kingdom.
Who destroyed Mer-Man's kingdom?
Rival ocean clans, according to the Classics card. Not Skeletor, not He-Man, and not the surface world. The card does not name them.
Who voiced Mer-Man in Revelation?
Kevin Conroy, in one of his final roles. Kevin Michael Richardson voices Beast Man in the same series and the two credits are often swapped.
