Review: 40793 Tom & Jerry

It's a fun IP for LEGO to expand into, but something about Jerry wasn't sitting right with me. I wonder if he might look better with white eye versions of Tom's light yellow eye 'surrounds'?

Despite not having seen one of the classic Tom and Jerry shorts in years, the theme music from those shorts was running through my head as I was reading this review. I don't really plan to get this, but I like the touch of Tom's tail being on fire.

@ALegoFan said:
"Has Tom been chasing Jerry in a Lego factory again?"

Yeah, they both fell into a molding machine, and this was the result.

As a fan of theme, I don’t buy nearly enough of them. This one hasn’t been among my most desired but I may still consider it if it goes on sale or there are 2x points, before it retires.

Yeah it retires next month, so those who want it better keep it in mind!

Quite cool, though I do have some issues with both of them.

I do think Tom is the better of the two, but those pink ears are weird. I don't see how this could have been done better with just bricks, and considering Lego can't print all teh way to the edges that wouldn't work either. So not ideal, but it is what it is.

With Jerry I have two issues: The eyes and his belly. The eyes are lacking some white , now it looks like beady eyes. Just like they did with Tom I think it would look much better had these been white tiles with black print. As for the belly....at first glace it looks like some giant teeth. Maybe a more rounded print could have solved that. And maybe more of a nitpick, but couldn't they have printed the inside of those dishes used for the ears?

Still, I do like them, and might pick them up if I ever find myself in a Lego Store.

@8lackmagic said:
"I remember when the BBC schedule was running a few minutes early, so they'd slot in a Tom & Jerry cartoon to fill the gap... happy days indeed.

As for this set, even though I'm not into BrickHeadz, I'll definitely be picking it up."

What a great call. That would be a leap out of your chair exciting bonus as a kid!

My partner ended up feeling they were a little too far over on the Itchy & Scratchy end of violence, so I took these off the “would be fun to build together” list. I don’t personally think either the mallet or the match are outside the realm of the cartoons, but I also would’ve been fine with less explicitly violent props so I didn’t especially feel the need to argue the point. We’re not short on kits we both really like to take its place.

I do think the execution is generally pretty decent although the colour mismatch on Jerry’s tail bothers me, and I also would’ve liked Jerry to have whites to his eyes, I think.

"Vielen Dank, für die Blumen..."
:-)

https://youtu.be/drpKa2BTGmE?si=P_0ZBr05bm97G71S

Happy memories indeed.

I dunno, I feel like Jerry’s ears are a bit far down, makes him look a bit more bear-like than I think was intended. Then again the two have had some fairly varied looks over their 80 years of animation so maybe that suits a specific style

Cute set, got it months ago already. Couldn't resist getting it, because Tom & Jerry is still, by far, the best animated series ever produced.

Whisker prints would have helped with both, I think.

"Hey. What's cooking?"
"You are... stupid."
- The Mouse Comes to Dinner, 1945

While I definitely appreciate that this exists (I love a good classic Tom & Jerry cartoon, although the original Hanna-Barbera era are really the only ones for me), I'm not sure it would be my chosen format for the characters. I'm also not sure what else would be an option - since the size difference between them is so integral to their dynamic, having them both be minifigures wouldn't be ideal either - but I feel the static Brickheadz format doesn't quite lend itself to characters who are all about action and movement.

Still, it's very neat to see them get the Lego treatment all the same, and on the whole they do look good! Thanks for the closer look at them :D

I'd not call these 'instantly recognisable'. I'm part of the generation that grew up with the cartoons on TV, and it took me a while to realise that these were Tom and Jerry as I'd skipped over the text. I thought it was some kind of hamster and dog duo from some new kids thing I'd never heard of until I bothered to read the title.

Now we need Itchy and Scratchy.

I think Tom's ears should have been two plates oriented sideways instead of the stacked bricks. The pink on both sides looks weird.

I remember Tom & Jerry, but that's because I'm ferociously old and as such, I associate this with old people (who may or may not shout at clouds). So far, the comments seem positive - but then I remember that collectively, we're approximately a billion years old.

So tell me, is there anyone on this forum under the age of thirty for whom this theme was something you've been waiting for all of your short, so very short lives?

@ThatBionicleGuy said:"I'm not sure it would be my chosen format for the characters. I'm also not sure what else would be an option - since the size difference between them is so integral to their dynamic, having them both be minifigures wouldn't be ideal either - but I feel the static Brickheadz format doesn't quite lend itself to characters who are all about action and movement."

Well, if Sylvester and Tweety can both be minifigures, I don't see why Tom and Jerry can't. Besides, if you're looking for consistent scale, you're a fan of the wrong toy.

I received my set months ago as well. Of all the chase 'toons (roadrunner/coyote, Sylvester/Tweety etc...) ,these are my favorites. There is a certain charm that accompanies their underlying friendship and the willingness to protect one another from third parties that tries to hurt them. For any younger people in the U.S. who may be interested, MeTV TOONS plays them and others daily.

I didn't think this one was particularly good. The scale is obviously wrong but there is not much they can do about that. But something still looks off with them, I guess mainly the shape.

As to not enough sets to celebrate the anniversary, is the 85th anniversary really that big a deal? Just because it ends in a 5? I can understand 50th, 75th and 100th as big ones. LEGO made out the 90th was a big one too presumably to cash in on peak popularity at the time (where were the 80th anniversary sets?). If they celebrate 85th in a big way, they should also celebrate 90th, 95th and 100th. And getting that many sets seems overkill. Especially if every fifth anniversary is celebrated for every property.

@CCC said:
"IAs to not enough sets to celebrate the anniversary, is the 85th anniversary really that big a deal?"

It's not. Extensive research* shows us that the 80th anniversary of a thing is "Oak", followed immediately by its 90th anniversary, "Granite". I'm guessing the Official Anniversary Naming Committee just decided to give up after the good anniversaries.

"Alright, so - Gold, Emerald, Diamond, Sapphire, Platinum... Diamond... Tree, Rock."
"Ralph, that's awful. Also, you used Diamond twice."
"Who cares, nothing lasts that long anyway. Let's go, pub's closing."
"But what about the 85th anniversaries?"
"Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, I guess. Chop chop, Carl!"

*Two minutes on Google