Championing better work for men and better shopping for women

I'd like to step in for Lego, here, because there is a risk that you are comparing apples and oranges.

"Intergalactic Girl" is a Lego superhero-style character from a setting in the far future where she "has single-handedly saved solar systems from black holes, rescued civilizations from cosmic conquerors and captured entire fleets of Blacktron battle cruisers".

Meanwhile, the "Astronaut" figure is a shout-back to the 1980s Lego Space range (notice that his flag carries the classic Lego Space logo) and is intended to be more of a 1960s Space Race kind of figure.

Lego has long promoted positive gender role models for both men and women and their range includes the "Women of Nasa" boxed set that specifically recognizes and celebrates real-life female scientists and astronauts who made invaluable contributions to science and space exploration.

I think it's really just an unfortunate coincidence that these two characters have appeared alongside each other as if they were supposed to be two sides of one coin. In fact, they are different coins entirely.

Of course, the fact that Intergalactic Girl has a pink space suit raises an eyebrow, but if this alien-conquering, world-saving superhero thinks she looks great in pink, who am I to disagree?

I'd like to step in for Lego, here, because there is a risk that you are comparing apples and oranges.

"Intergalactic Girl" is a Lego superhero-style character from a setting in the far future where she "has single-handedly saved solar systems from black holes, rescued civilizations from cosmic conquerors and captured entire fleets of Blacktron battle cruisers".

Meanwhile, the "Astronaut" figure is a shout-back to the 1980s Lego Space range (notice that his flag carries the classic Lego Space logo) and is intended to be more of a 1960s Space Race kind of figure.

Lego has long promoted positive gender role models for both men and women and their range includes the "Women of Nasa" boxed set that specifically recognizes and celebrates real-life female scientists and astronauts who made invaluable contributions to science and space exploration.

I think it's really just an unfortunate coincidence that these two characters have appeared alongside each other as if they were supposed to be two sides of one coin. In fact, they are different coins entirely.

Of course, the fact that Intergalactic Girl has a pink space suit raises an eyebrow, but if this alien-conquering, world-saving superhero thinks she looks great in pink, who am I to disagree?

Hi Robey,
I see you've done a bit of background digging into their roles. The cards don't show any of their detailed bio so it's unlikely that kids are going to know this. (Also, grown-ups might not find this out before we toss the books out in protest.) Comparing card to card is still... well... a bit vacuous.

Hi Robey,

I'm all for a well put together pink outfit, but they definitely could have written her a less gender stereotyped bio, especially based on this new info you have provided us with.

Surely her achievements in saving solar system and rescuing civilisations should be what they shout about in the bio rather than popping to shops to get the paper and fetch the groceries, which I have no doubt she does extremely efficiently.

After all we all need to get the groceries (in fact i'll be doing that on my way home tonight), but in comparison to her other 'achievements' that is probably quite low on the list of things to shout about.

Your description of the character that she is actually supposed to be in Lego world just makes it more sad (and annoying) that they decided to totally overlook this and opted for the bio they used.

I agree it is an unfortunate coincidence that both cards ended up in the same packet as it highlights the differences in the two bios even more, but someone definitely should have questioned that bio in line with their aim to promote positive gender roles for both boys and girls. After all what if Astronaut wanted to get the groceries instead...