LEGO has unveiled its first set with a Minifigure of a disabled person. The move has been hailed as a massive moment by the #ToyLikeMe organization.
#ToyLikeMe is a campaign that wants to get toy manufacturers to start making toys that better represent everyone, including disabled children and adults. It started in April 2015 with a call to positively represent the 150 million disabled children in the world.
Brands like PLaymobil, Orchard Toys and Lottie dolls have already joined. Now the campaign gets its biggest supporter in the face of LEGO. “LEGO has just rocked our brick built world and made 150 million disabled kids, their mums, dads, pet dogs and hamsters very, very happy. We’re all conga-ing up and down the street chucking coloured bricks like confetti! But on a serious note, this move by LEGO is massive in terms of ending cultural marginalisation, it will speak volumes to children, disabled or otherwise, the world over”, Toy Like Me co-founder Rebecca Atkinson told ToyNews.
The first disabled LEGO Minifigure is of a young man in a wheelchair. It is part of the new playset Fun in the Park from the LEGO City toy line. It also features an assistance dog. The play set was unveiled during the Nuremberg Toy Fair that it is currently underway. It is also the first set to come with a LEGO baby Minifigure, complete with a stroller. The set is expected to hit the stores this summer.
The minifigure wheelchair isn’t the first wheelchair to be made by Lego. Certain Duplo sets, with larger blocks and figures aimed at preschool children, have included a wheelchair since 2011, CBC News notes. The Duplo wheelchair was part of a hospital playset and there wheelchairs are used all the time for various purposes. This with the Fun in the Park set, this is the fist time a wheelchair is used for the exact purpose for a disabled minifigure.
