Lego Review: Research Institute

Today I'll be reviewing set 21110, the Lego Ideas Research Institute. Sadly, it's currently sold out on Lego's online shop, but if you're lucky, they may still have some in Lego's brick and mortar stores. This set should retail for $19.99, so be wary if you try to purchase it off Amazon or eBay, I've already seen it listed for over $70. I know this was supposed to be a limited run, but hopefully Lego will realize there is a demand for this set and get more on stock on shelves.

The Research Institute is a fan created set, thanks to Lego Ideas, and was created to increase the overall number of female minifigures and to show that girls can become anything they want. This is one of the reasons why I wanted this set so bad. There are female minifigures available, but most of Lego's popular themes, such as City and Superhero, are dominated by male characters. The Friends line is definitely geared towards girls, but the minifigures are at a different scale than standard Lego minis, and I know from experience that a lot of girls would prefer the Batmobile over Stephanie's Ice Cream Shop.

In standard Ideas' fashion, the Research Institure is packaged in a clamshell box and comes with a glue bound instruction manual that goes into further detail about the creation of the set, as well as job descriptions for each minifigure. Surprisingly, this is the first Ideas set I've seen to come with numbered bags, most likely due to it dealing with mostly small pieces (although that didn't matter for the Exo Suit) and three builds are independent of each other.

Shocking!

This set comes with three minifigures, a Paleontologist, a Chemist, and an Astronomer.

I was actually surprised by the detail that went into each minifigure. The outfits are great, and to be honest there isn't much to set apart an astronomer from a paleotologist, or from any other profession, to be honest, but they work with this set. I especially love the scarf on the astronomer. As you can see, each minifigure comes with two facial expressions, although I wish they were a bit different. Maybe a look of excitement instead frustration and uncertainty.

While the astronomer doesn't come with any accessories, the chemist comes with two styles of beakers and two syringes, which I'm pretty sure are supposed to be pipettes, and the paleontologist comes with a magnifying glass that actually works, which is pretty cool.

Each minifigure comes with a vignette that shows their profession in action. The astronomer build come with a telescope and star map that is used to explore the galaxy. The chemist build comes with a work station, more beakers, bottles, flasks, and a beaker holder. And coffee mugs that can be stored in the cabinets and drawers. The stand out of this set is the paleontologist vignette, which comes with a model tyrannosaurus rex, along with a microscope and a dinosaur bone for closer examination.

The Verdict

This set was a lot of fun. It's not a complicated build, and only takes times because there are a lot of small pieces involved. But the focus of this set was to highlight three profession that aren't normally associated with women, and in that regard it succeeds wonderfully. I'm really happy with this set, and hopefully anyone that wants it will be able to get their hands on one.