Wendy's DC Heroes Set 6 exclusive review

It makes sense the final set in this Wendy's Kids' Meal DC keshi line would be Aquaman: he gets credit for being one of the major heroes the same way Ringo gets credit for being one of the most successful musicians. Matt Kaufenberg did reportedly try to get Martian Manhunter into the lineup, but J'onn didn't make the cut. This is the classicest of classic Aquamen, not the Jason Momoa version: he's wearing his orange and green outfit (or would be, if these minis were painted rather than being molded in one solid color), and has short, neatly combed hair. They've sculpted all the little scales on his shirt, and even remembered the fins on his gloves and the back of his calves. His right hand is sculpted open, but the left is a fist - if they'd done both of them open, it could have looked like he was swimming.

The second figure in Set 6 is Mera, the Queen of Atlantis. Presumably because 1) no would care enough about Garth to make an Aqualad 2) Dolphin, a girl in cutoff shorts and a shirt knotted right under her chest, would have been too racy, and 3) Ocean Master doesn't look right without his trident, which would have been a nightmare for safety standards. Per Joe Allard's original design for the toy, Mera was supposed to have a swirl of water on her hand to represent her powers, but the final product just has her hand raised, and turned to the back like she just threw something over her shoulder. Weird choice. She's also been sculpted with all the scales on her suit, but her feet have been done with webbed toes. Is that part of her traditional design? It doesn't seem to be part of that old DC Style Guide, so maybe it's something Kaufenberg made up? Her crown sticks up through her hair, and she has starfish-shaped earrings just above her high collar.

Aquaman's villain for the set is Black Manta, because of course it is. (See what we said above about Ocean Master's spear.) By the luck of the draw I got this set in purple, which works really nicely for him. He's sculpted in that traditional M.U.S.C.L.E. squat, with the knees bent slightly and the arms held out to the sides, and his big helmet makes him look like some kind of alien more than a supervillain. They couldn't very well have the air hoses sticking out of the dome and running into the tanks on his back, because they'd be flimsy and likely to break, but to leave them out would be incorrect. So what to do? They've sculpted the hoses here, just made them press right up against the back of his neck. That's a clever solution to get all the details in there without ruining the design of the physical toy!

Like we said at the beginning of this review series, being able to get all six of these sets in either red, blue, green, or purple was nice (and achievable, for those who must have them all), but my personal preference would have been light pink, really honoring the roots these toys were growing from.