Not Just for Boys: Lego Develops Collection with Female Scientists

Jun 07, 2014 12:35 PM EDT | Jordan Ecarma

Lego has announced that it will produce a new collection with female scientists, including minifigures of an astronomer, paleontologist and chemist.

Called "Research Institute," the project came from Lego fan and Swedish geochemist Ellen Kooijman, who received more than 10,000 votes for her design, ABC News reported.

In a blog post, the geochemist explained that the idea came about quite naturally.

"As a female scientist I had noticed two things about the available LEGO sets: a skewed male/female minifigure ratio and a rather stereotypical representation of the available female figures," Kooijman wrote. "It seemed logical that I would suggest a small set of female minifigures in interesting professions to make our LEGO city communities more diverse."

Her inclusive design made headlines back in February sometime after being submitted to the fan-based online community Lego Ideas. More than 300,000 fans viewed the project, and the page garnered more than 1,000 comments.

Kooijman actually developed designs for 12 vignettes; it's unclear if Lego will produce only three ideas or more, PCMag.com reported. The scientist, who will get 1 percent of total net sales from the project, pointed out in her blog post that female minifigures are still in the minority.

"I have designed some professional female minifigures that also show that girls can become anything they want, including a paleontologist or an astronomer," she said of the project, adding, "Being a geochemist myself the geologist and chemist figures are based on me." 

According to Lego, the design now moves into the "longest phase" of a new toy project: the development phase.

"During this time, Lego model designers refine the product and develop it for release, we create the product materials (box, instructions, marketing), and get everything ready for a production run," said Lego, as quoted by PCMag. "This also takes several months."

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