Months after a girl took the company to task for its female toy figures, Lego has released the Research Institute, a play set created by a “real-life geophysicist, Ellen Kooijman,” the company says. 
The set will let kids take on the roles of paleontologist, astronomer and chemist, using three female figures. It might also satisfy some of the demands set forth earlier this year by Charlotte Benjamin, a 7-year-old who to the company accusing its female characters of being boring.
“I love Legos,” Charlotte wrote. But, she continued, there aren’t enough girls — and the ones the company has made just “sit at home, go to the beach, and shop,” while the boy characters “saved people, had jobs, even swam with sharks!”
In the company’s fan blog, GlenBricker said although recently LEGO® has started to design and add more female figures to their sets, they are still a minority. A small set of minifigures would provide a great opportunity to add women to our LEGO® town or city communities.
“I have designed some professional female minifigures that also show that girls can become anything they want, including a paleontologist or an astronomer. Being a geochemist myself the geologist and chemist figures are based on me:-) Due to the limitations of LDD the heads and hairstyles I used here are a bit limited. Ideally, Lego would use some ‘rare’ face and hair designs if they were to produce a set.”
The fan said each figure comes with a 6×4 base plate and a corresponding setting to enhance the building experience and stimulate creativity. The sets also come with lots of accessories, such as bones, vials, a magnifying glass, etc. I have designed 12 individual vignettes, but I imagine a selection of 3 would make a good box size.
Because the project is climbing to 10k really fast it’s time to evaluate which sets are most popular so Lego can take that into account when they review the project. Many people have left comments indicating their preferred designs – thanks! – and it is clear that the Science-based ones are favored. As such, I would like to propose that the final set will represent a versatile Research Institute comprising the labs of the Astronomer, the Paleontologist, and the Chemist.
Source: Lego Ideas
