Wendy’s Latest Kids Meal Celebrates A Beloved Character’s Birthday

Fast food kids’ meals are hot property. Every year, the major chains duke it out with each other in their efforts to profile the hottest franchise around, and 2026 has seen a bumper crop of themed meals coming our way, featuring some big names. Sonic had Hello Kitty, Burger King had retro Hasbro toys (Furby and My Little Pony, amongst others), and McDonald’s currently has…BTS. Look, I’m not complaining about that one – I love BTS – but it definitely feels a little less toy/cartoon-focused than the rest. 

Videos by Sporked

Now, Wendy’s is bringing out a new batch of kids’ meals, with collectibles that thoroughly sit in the non-popstar camp. Luckily, it’s already got proof that it’ll be a winner.

Wendy’s x Sonic The Hedgehog

Yesterday, it was announced that Wendy’s would be bringing out a batch of Sonic The Hedgehog-themed kids’ meals to celebrate the latter brand’s 35th anniversary. Well, I say “themed,” but there’s no change to its food whatsoever here. Instead, it’s a pretty standard offer on the menu front (you can choose from chicken tenders or nuggets, hamburgers, or cheeseburgers, along with fries or apple bites and a drink) – but with the bonus of getting one of seven collectible character card cases. 

Within each case is a unique set of cards, and there are 35 total to choose from, each of them featuring a Sonic character. These will include Sonic the Hedgehog (duh), Tails (also duh), and Knuckles (…duh) – but Sonic fans will also be very pleased to hear that some more unexpected characters, like Rouge, are making an appearance too. Well, maybe that’s not unexpected to you. Maybe you, as a major Sonic fan, very much expected it. But it was unexpected to SOME. 

Who Are “Some”?

Some are the good folks of the UK – hello! – who have already had this collaboration. Wendy’s debuted its Sonic collab in the UK a few months ago, and it’s safe to say that it went down well. People over on Reddit (including those who said that they weren’t expecting Rouge to show up in a fast food collab) were overjoyed at the pairing, and some US residents asked why they couldn’t have it. Well, now they can.

Wendy’s team-up with Soni comes on the heels of its Minions & Monsters Meal, a kids’ meal that did actually have a bespoke menu item, in the form of the Banana Frosty. Unfortunately, we didn’t love it – so maybe Wendy’s is playing it safe here by sticking to its core menu. Either way: playing cards!