LEGO Ideas: Women of NASA (21312) is an Inspiring Set for Display.

It’s always an inspiring moment whenever a toy line decides to honor a real person by having a toy crafted in his or her image. In fact, LEGO is one of the leading toy brands in giving out these tributes for some of the pioneering figures of our history.

LEGO has been offering sets that seeks to inspire young minds to pursue careers in science and technology based on the accomplishments made by the most brilliant minds in science. The latest LEGO Ideas set seems to be a shoutout to previously released ones under the same theme: the first being the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover (21104), and the other as a tribute to women in the STEM careers which is the Research Institute (21110). This time around, the LEGO  Ideas: Women of NASA (21312) is the next building set in the LEGO Ideas line that pays tribute to the invaluable contributions made by the most outstanding female scientists in the field of space exploration.

The Women of NASA (21312) set is the brainchild of science writer AFOL Maia Weinstock (aka 20tauri over at the LEGO Ideas website). After gaining the much coveted fan support and approval of the LEGO Review and Design Teams, this set is now a reality and is slated to be released to the public on November 1st.

The Women of NASA concept was Weinstock’s second attempt to submit an original project for LEGO Ideas that depicts women empowerment, the first being a fan submission that shows real-life women Supreme Court Justices which she aptly titled Legal Justice League – Women of the Supreme Court in LEGO. However, the LEGO Ideas Review Team declined to give it the green light for reasons that it is against LEGO’s policy of depicting any person in the government, or of politics, political symbols, campaigns or movements.

Though Maia’s first original fan submission was turned down, the approval of her second one is in itself a source of inspiration. The LEGO Ideas Women of NASA (21312) is perhaps a step further in shattering the age-old stereotype that building bricks and careers in STEM are simply just for boys. True, LEGO has delved with ideas of offering sets primarily for girls such as the Friends and Elves themes, but having the LEGO Ideas Women of NASA is a step further in teaching young, aspiring female scientists that being exceptional in the field of sciences is not determined by one’s gender.

Included in the LEGO Ideas: Women of NASA (21312) set are minifigures of software engineer Margaret Hamilton, who designed the Apollo spacecraft computer software, Hubble Space Telescope head planner Nancy Roman, and astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison.

Their respective display cases show props such as Hamilton’s pile of Apollo computer source code books, a model of the Hubble Telescope for Roman, and a scale space shuttle for Ride and Jemison.

Set 21312 comes in a sturdy box while the building manual also includes biographies of the famous NASA women. All minifigures have detailed clothing detail and dual printed heads. It’s a must-buy and build for history-buff LEGO collectors.

The LEGO Ideas Women of NASA (21312) is a 231-piece set retailing for $25, and will be available to all by November 1st at all LEGO Brand stores and via shop.LEGO.com.

So what do you think brick fans, will you pick this one up once it hit shelves on November 1? Let us know in the comments below.