As readers of this blog are well aware, I've been pushing for LEGO to ramp up its offerings of female minifigures in sets and the official minifig series. Last year, after the brouhaha surrounding the introduction of LEGO's Friends series, I noted the clear divide in male-female representation within the company and gave some concrete suggestions for the addition of female figures in stereotype-breaking careers. More recently, I lamented LEGO's changing course on apparent plans for a female scientist fig (though the librarian that came out in the end is actually quite nice).
I now want to share a wonderful proposal I discovered recently that conveys my vision completely—and which needs your support. The minifigures above and below were mocked up by Alatariel, a Dutch geochemist and LEGO fan, for Cuusoo, an officially-sanctioned LEGO crowdsourcing project. Users on Cuusoo (which means "wish" in Japanese) submit their ideas and solicit upvotes for their projects. Proposals with more than 10,000 votes are reviewed by a team at LEGO and may ultimately be created for sale in limited editions. (Examples of winning designs so far include the Hayabusa spacecraft and a Back to the Future set featuring Marty, Doc, and the DeLorean.)
Alatariel's full Female Minifigure Set is beautiful, and exactly what the doctor ordered. It features 13 new minifigures, plus accessories, in roles that include engineer, court judge, chemist, firefighter, astronomer, and paleontologist. Explaining her motivation, Alatariel writes:
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, which LEGO® has made in the past for different themes, 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 fire fighter or a paleontologist (main picture). 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 produce some new face and hair designs, but at least I would like to see some 'rare' ones included.So far the minifig set is about a quarter of the way toward its 10,000-vote goal. Please add your support! ∞
Post was corrected to fix the spelling of "Alatariel" and the fact that she is Dutch, not Swedish.
