LEGO Ideas: 21110 Research Institute/Female Minifigure Set

[gedren_y]

At that price, I'll probably get two for the parts.

[gylman]

This will be a great set for giving as a gift to a child or friend, even a professional colleague. Great decision by TLG to choose it. Simple but effective.

[ManInATopHat]

Meh. Simply meh. Out of all the fantastic ideas submitted, three little vignettes were chosen? Ugh... In my opinion, this set is pretty bland. Could use some more cool features. The one thing I do like is the dinosaur skeleton, but other than that, nothing very special.

[Clone OPatra]

Also, the face is new, but pretty lazy, as the alternate face is old. It's a switch up on this face.

Actually the face in the set is the same as the one on 'Executive Ellen' in one of the LEGO movie sets, I believe. Indeed, just a slight variation on the Alien Conquest head.

I'm personally a bit 'meh'd' out with this set. It really needs some more new prints for the figures. Two of the heads were only in Lego Movie sets, so I guess those are still rare, but reusing those two sweater-like torsos makes no sense for the setting, and the labcoat scientist could use some leg printing. The vignettes are fine, but more imaginative/new figures would make this an easy buy instead of a no-buy for me. I don't even have those sweater prints, but they don't interest me and don't belong in these settings (unless the figure in the dinosaur vig is supposed to be a visitor at a Natural History museum).

[Transparency for Effect]

Not bad. Especially with the price in mind, may pick it up at some point.

Now they better make Doctor Who next.

[lightningtiger]

What an awesome set, neat to see it's pretty close to original Cuusoo idea.....plus new female heads. .....could be also considered that the minifigs could pass as science teachers perhaps ?

I will be totally buying at least one set.....might have to build something for the scenes to go into !

[finnbricker]

This will be the first Cuusoo/Ideas set that I will buy, but I definitely share the opinion of the majority here – the minifigs are boring. Really boring. Everything else I find acceptable, but the torsos are bland. Would it be too much work to come up with some different female torsos?

Do we actually know that the price will be $20?

[paul_delahaye]

In my mind, this set would have been cooler if the dinosaur skeleton was made from glow in the dark elements

[Lyichir]

Actually the face in the set is the same as the one on 'Executive Ellen' in one of the LEGO movie sets, I believe. Indeed, just a slight variation on the Alien Conquest head.

I'm personally a bit 'meh'd' out with this set. It really needs some more new prints for the figures. Two of the heads were only in Lego Movie sets, so I guess those are still rare, but reusing those two sweater-like torsos makes no sense for the setting, and the labcoat scientist could use some leg printing. The vignettes are fine, but more imaginative/new figures would make this an easy buy instead of a no-buy for me. I don't even have those sweater prints, but they don't interest me and don't belong in these settings (unless the figure in the dinosaur vig is supposed to be a visitor at a Natural History museum).

Actually, the project creator applauded the use of those "sweater-like" torsos in her review since she had wanted to convey that most scientists wear casual clothing unless they're doing lab work (like the chemist, who does have a unique lab coat print). I don't have a problem with the torsos themselves at all, save that most current City builders probably have plenty of those torsos already.

[Dorayaki]

It's been discussed in CMF series 11, I'm not sure I like the new female scientist design even though the designers did try to make her different. I liked the original design with long robe and short legs.

And I'm alittle disappoint that no original figure prints aka new minifigures come to appeal FOLs despite they're the first group of female LEGO Idea minifigures and this set was meant to show gender issues. Also, if this is a whole research lab, it may be nice to see all three come in"uniform" things.

The rest building part is very close to the original design, I'm not too surprised and I guess I'll still be going to get them.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Dorayaki

[rollermonkey]

This seems appropriate to the discussion...

I've got a young daughter, so I'm very pleased that LEGO is being more inclusive with their direction.

Edited June 26, 2014 by rollermonkey

[just2good]

Actually the face in the set is the same as the one on 'Executive Ellen' in one of the LEGO movie sets, I believe. Indeed, just a slight variation on the Alien Conquest head.

Ah, that makes sense! I don't own the set she comes in, thus I didn't think of that.

[jimmynick]

Meh. Simply meh. Out of all the fantastic ideas submitted, three little vignettes were chosen? Ugh... In my opinion, this set is pretty bland. Could use some more cool features. The one thing I do like is the dinosaur skeleton, but other than that, nothing very special.

I think this is a fantastic idea:

• Addressing LEGO minifigure gender imbalances? Check.
  
• Promoting different disciplines of science to children? Check.
  
• Playable for the children? Check.
  

It's clearly not meant to blow you out of the water like BTTF or Ghostbusters - it's just simple and benign. The fact it that this simple idea made it to review means that 10,000 or more people believe that it's a fantastic idea.

What kinds of cool features would you have put in it?

[Artanis I]

Ah. Darn darn darny darn, the skelly is plain white. I suppose that's realistic though. Tan would've been cooler, or a fibreglass looking colour.

[AncientDayz]

This set just doesn't seem to wow me at all. I like the idea. I like the dinosaur. The collection of three little sets just seems to leave me wanting, but I can't put my finger on exactly why. They just seem very disjoint and a bit underwhelming. I haven't decided if this is worth a purchase. It'll probably be a last minute decision based on the amount in my wallet after I get everything else I want.

[sithewok]

I can't wait for this one - my favorite Ideas set so far. I'll be buying one for myself and one for my daughter.

[KingPixels]

I think that this set serves its purpose well. It showcases female scientists and shows girls that they can go into STEM fields. I don't think the target market is going to be complaining about the low number (only one) of exclusive prints.

Those minifigs, wtf! I was gonna make this my first "ideas" set purchase, I figured, new yellow flesh minifig parts for custom stuff yay! but now I know its not really worth it.

Why would you expect them to be new? CUUSOO Ideas probably doesn't have the largest budget. New prints just weren't needed.

[Transparency for Effect]

This will be the first Cuusoo/Ideas set that I will buy, but I definitely share the opinion of the majority here – the minifigs are boring. Really boring. Everything else I find acceptable, but the torsos are bland. Would it be too much work to come up with some different female torsos?

Do we actually know that the price will be $20?

Will probably be my first too.

[Dorayaki]

Why would you expect them to be new? CUUSOO Ideas probably doesn't have the largest budget. New prints just weren't needed.

Not necessarily correct, but I can figure out some:

1) Previous two licensed sets both have exclusive characters with new torso and face prints. This does lead us to expect more from future Ideas sets. Now I'm afriad this set isn't a good match for the Ghostbusters.

The major difference is that the previous ones are licensed characters, while the ones we get this time are even not specific characters. Maybe it's a good excuse for TLG, or contrarily the licensed sets had extra budget because TLG believed that they can benefit more (even though there have been reused face prints from licesned characters like Padme Granger).

2) The initial purpose of this project was also to diversify our choices of female characters from official sets. If we can simply find used pieces (except that new torso) to recreate these minifigures right now, the effects would be weaker. I didn't expect too much too, but I'd ask one new hair color and two new torsos at least.

Now this set is much like Creator sets: the building part is the true star and the minifigures are purely sidekicks. Maybe Alatariel could have assigned some rare combinations of faces and headpieces in order to make them more unique (like those from Ultra Agents), in case TLC would try to make them as generic as possible.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Dorayaki

[Brickus]

When is this set due out?

[XAxles]

Reviewing a set that you designed...

I wanna do it, too.

[Thomas_w]

It's been discussed in CMF series 11, I'm not sure I like the new female scientist design even though the designers did try to make her different. I liked the original design with long robe and short legs.

And I'm alittle disappoint that no original figure prints aka new minifigures come to appeal FOLs despite they're the first group of female LEGO Idea minifigures and this set was meant to show gender issues. Also, if this is a whole research lab, it may be nice to see all three come in"uniform" things.

The rest building part is very close to the original design, I'm not too surprised and I guess I'll still be going to get them.

The designer of the original project has stated that she wanted to show that scientists are not all white old men in white lab coats. If you have ever been in a research laboratory you might be surprised to find that most scientists dress pretty casually. I am in my laboratory right now and I am wearing jeans and a red hoodie.

[jonwil]

It's supposedly still in production. GB was bumped up because it was meant to coincide with the anniversary of the movie.

Also the Exo Suit requires a lot more work to make it into a playable set than the ecto-1 and this research institute set.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

I like a lot this set, but I fear it can be overpriced, though it doesn't contain licensed themes.

The only flaw is the poor choice of the minifigures, but it has a lot of reusable pieces.

Nice work!

[Ap11AP]

I wonder when the exo suit will first make its appearance as that's two sets now that were approved after it and yet released before it...

Anyway, I like what they have done to make this into a set, as many have stated though, disappointed in the minifigures.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Ap11AP