Probably one of the nicest and most colorful figures in the line, Mer-Man offers quite a bit with bright colors and optional parts. He could probably be an army builder. You can swap his humanoid legs for an eel tail. The armor comes off. He has a sword and a trident. You can mix and match to make all sorts of configurations, with rich metallic purples and really great gold paint. The gold plastic, admittedly, is not as impressive - but the bluegreens and especially the tail are just incredible.
It's $5 more than a regular figure, but you do get 50% more figure here - it would be nice if we had more spare torsos to combine with it, but there's enough here that it feels you're getting your money's worth.
By default, you get a pretty good figure. Shredder, Krang, and Skeletor are mutating Masters of the Universe heroes and villains to do their bidding, resulting in a lot of clear body parts and some energy bolts on the skin - Mer-Man's are a light teal color, painted on clear blue skin, with armor over it. You might not even notice it's there, but it's there. This alone would be pretty cool, but the gold armor and purple elements really pop nicely. I love the angler fish lure on his head, the massive underbite, and the incredibly colorful face. The dark purple, red, gold, and clear skin all merge together to make something look more like a high-end sofubi figure than a typical action figure. I'm all for it - for years we get a lot of stuff with a black wash or a lot of sculpted detail, but stuff this insanely colorful tends to be rare.
As a biped, articulation is pretty much the same. His bigger hands have a larger range of motion in the wrist, but you know what to expect from the waist, knees, elbows, ankles, and so on. You'll eve recognize body parts from a lot of other figures, but the new head, new armor, and new skirt piece all combine to make it seem like a totally new creation. The extra big, new hands help too - you might not even notice or care that the torso and shoulders are the same pieces we've been getting since 2020. This is a great reuse of existing parts. The feet look like Buzz-Off's, for example.
The new tail section - similar, but not identical to what we got with Lady Slither - steals the show. It isn't clear, but it tries to match the skin tone and as such blew me away. I couldn't believe how much it looked like it was glowing under the lights in my photo studio, absolutely radiant without any UV light or glow in the dark elements. The tail easily pops on the torso, but getting it posed just-so to stand up may take a moment. It stands well, which is impressive for an eel-like snake body without a second leg to prop it up. I assume Mattel put long hours into getting the center of gravity just right, which makes sense, they're probably going to reuse this engineering a bunch with new Snake Men in the coming year. I can't decide which mode I like best - everything looks good here.
In addition to the removable armor with what seem to be hook-ups for a shell shield (not included), you get a sword and a trident. The trident came with the Filmation Mer-Man, and the sword may be new here - at least, I don't recognize it. The sword has a great seafoam green plastic with some painted highlights. Given a typical figure comes with one or two accessories for $20, it's not a lot of extra gear for $25 but it's enough to feel like they put in the plastic to earn the money. Neither accessory seems to be amazing, but both are good and appropriate for some mutant king of the sea.
If I didn't start collecting this line, I would probably say this is the figure that would get me to start. It's weird, it's new enough that it kind of stands alone, and the figure has plenty of options to it that allows you to change how you view it in your collection. I really like this guy more as a new character than as Mer-Man, but you can do whatever you want with it. That's what makes toys great - maybe Skeletor needs a new stooge, and this guy fits the bill. If you got $25 to burn, go get it, and if you like it, see what else you can pick up on sale or on eBay.
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