Wendy's DC Heroes Set 3 exclusive review

The animal chain of command goes mouse, cat, dog. The DC Comics chain of command (at least as far as merch appearances are concerned) goes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. So naturally she'd be headlining Set 3 of the 2023 Wendy's kids meal premiums. According to artist Matt Kaufenberg, Wendy's wanted to go with classic looks wherever possible, so Diana is wearing her star-spangled trunks rather than the leather armor skirt she tends to wear these days (and yes, the stars are sculpted on). She has tiny earrings tucked in among her thick hair, and ina nice attention to detail, her lasso of truth is hanging from the back of her belt.

It's hard to do "two heroes and a villain" in a Wonder Woman set, because she works alone. She works alone the way Batman claims to work alone. Sure, they could have given her Wonder Girl, but neither Cassie nor Donna are really prominent enough to bother with right now. So instead, the second spot goes to the Justice League's diversity hire, Cyborg. They've been trying since New 52 to make fetch happen with "Cyborg is on the Justice League," but it still hasn't taken. This is one case where a newer design was allowed, because if they did the one people actually think of, it would underscore how he's a Teen Titan, not a Justice Leaguer. His sculpt is big and chunky, and even has the tech detailing in those bands around his thighs sculpted in! Neat! This is well-made, but the underlying demands of the design keep it from being very good.

She may not have friends, but Wonder Woman definitely has enemies, so the third figure in this set is Cheetah. This is the version of her when she was just wearing a cat costume, not the mutated half-cat lady of later years. One of the production restrictions faced in the production of these figures was that they all needed to be able to be pulled from the mold in once piece - safety regulations get exponentially harder when you have to worry about parts separating on a toy that's aimed at very young kids. But because Cheetah's costume includes a tail, Joe Allard has sculpted it wrapping down around her leg. Clever solution! The spots on her costume are sculpted on, just like WW's stars, and there's a panel down the center that's smooth.

It would have been interesting if, instead of being available in four different colors (red, blue, purple, green), each of these keshi figurines had been assigned their own color. Like, imagine if Cheetah had been molded in yellow, or Cyborg in light gray. We'd still have ended up with a rainbow of characters, but a bit more identifiable at a glance. Maybe that would have been too much hassle for a free giveaway, though.