After decades of building pirate ships, race cars and haunted castles, Lego has come up with something new: a wheelchair. 
 
 The Danish toymaker has unveiled its first ever disabled minifigure on Thursday. The figure of a hat-wearing boy in a wheelchair was first spotted at the Nuremberg international toy fair in Germany and featured on fan blogs. 
 
 The company later confirmed the tiny wheelchair will be part of a new Lego CITY set that will come out in June. 
 
 Lego and other toymakers have been under pressure for some time to introduce toys that reflect real life. 
 
 Online campaign #ToyLikeMe has called on the company to produce figures that represent disabled children. Its online petition accumulated over 20,000 signatures. 
 
 "We've got genuine tears of joy right now," the campaign organizers said after the new toys were unveiled. 
 
 The new set appears to show a scene in a park, with figures of children in playground. 
 
 Related: Brick by brick, Lego builds top 100 brand 
 
 The company made 60 billion Lego pieces in 2014. Its sales across Europe, the Americas and Asia grew strongly thanks to the success of The Lego Movie. Sales grew 18% in the first half of 2015, following 15% growth in 2014. 
 
 The family-owned business became the biggest toymaker in the world in terms of revenue and profit in 2014, beating its rival Mattel. ||||| Lego, In A First, Will Unveil A Minifigure In A Wheelchair 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Screengrab of Zusammengebaut video by NPR Screengrab of Zusammengebaut video by NPR 
 
 This summer, Lego will release its first-ever minifigure that uses a wheelchair, the company says, confirming reports that emerged after one of the toys was seen at a toy fair. In recent years, the company has been urged to show more diversity in its offerings. 
 
 German website Zusammengebaut and other Lego fan outlets published photographs of the figurine at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, on Wednesday, setting off celebrations among those backing a movement called Toy Like Me, which urges Lego, Hasbro, Fisher Price and other toymakers to include disabilities in some of their figurines. 
 
 Included in Lego's upcoming Fun at the Park set, the wheelchair is seen being used by a youth wearing a beanie cap and a hoodie. 
 
 YouTube 
 
 "We are beyond happy right now," Rebecca Atkinson of Toy Like Me says in a statement posted online. "Lego have just rocked our brick built world and made 150 million disabled kids, their mums, dads, pet dogs and hamsters very very happy. 
 
 The wheelchair is part of Lego's City line and will go on sale in June, according to Emma Owen, Lego's spokesperson in Britain and Ireland. 
 
 "This is the first LEGO mini figure with a wheelchair, although previously there was a LEGO Duplo range, a series of the toys aimed at pre-school children, that featured an elderly man in a wheelchair," website The Mighty explains. "That set was criticized by activists for reinforcing stereotypes about wheelchairs only being for the elderly. This new figure is a part of the LEGO line aimed at older kids." 
 
 Atkinson, a journalist and disability consultant, says Lego's move "will speak volumes to children, disabled or otherwise, the world over." 
 
 More than 20,000 people have signed Toy Like Me's online petition that calls on Lego to use its toys to "help generations of kids, (both with and without disabilities), grow up with a more positive attitude to human difference!" ||||| At long last, LEGO will actually have new female figurines who do something other than bake and hang out at the beach. 
 
 The Denmark-based toy company has approved new designs for female scientist, paleontologist and astronomer characters from its LEGO Ideas online competition. 
 
 “We’re very excited to release Ellen Kooijman’s Female Minifigure set, featuring 3 scientists, now entitled “Research Institute” as our next LEGO Ideas set,” LEGO said in an official statement. “This awesome model is an inspiring set that offers a lot for kids as well as adults.” 
 
 As Kooijman put it, LEGO typically features a “stereotypical representation” of women in their figures, and she set out to change that. 
 
 “As a female scientist I had noticed two things about the available LEGO sets: a skewed male/female minifigure ratio and a rather stereotypical representation of the available female figures,” Kooijman wrote in a post explaining her project. 
 
 “It seemed logical that I would suggest a small set of female minifigures in interesting professions to make our LEGO city communities more diverse,” she added. 
 
 Support for the project was slow at first, but thanks to a flurry of tweets, it skyrocketed from around 2,000 supporters to 10,000 in just about one week. 
 
 Despite comprising nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and 60 percent of bachelor degree recipients, women filled only 24 percent of Science Technology Engineering and Math jobs in 2009, according to the Department of Commerce. 
 
 It’s an acute problem with no easy solution. But many believe that one piece of the puzzle is broadening the dreams and visions of young girls. 
 
 In 2013, LEGO introduced a “scientist” mini-figure to its collection, and though she had no particular specialty, it was warmly received. 
 
 But LEGO’S 2011 attempt to explicitly appeal to girls was resoundingly panned. LEGO Friends seemed like a Barbie knockoff — replete with lots of pink, short skirts, hanging out at the pool and of course, some good old baking. Its critics called the toy sets condescending and stereotypical, or worse: sexist. 
 
 Earlier this year, a 7-year-old girl wrote to the company to complain that “all the girls did was sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, and had no jobs,” while the boys in LEGO toys “went on adventures, worked, saved people, and had jobs.” 
 
 7yo Charlotte writes an adorable and strongly worded letter to LEGO regarding the lack of adventures for girls. pic.twitter.com/JblNKzCwJs — SocImages (@SocImages) January 28, 2014 
 
 
 
 Kooijman’s design is the first step in correcting this problem. 
 
 For this heightened awareness of the depiction of women in toys and the media, there are many decades of feminism to thank. 
 
 More recently, however, Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has made changing the depiction of women in stock images a big priority, along with — somewhat controversially — a campaign to reclaim the word “bossy” as a compliment, not a critique. 
 
 And startup GoldieBlox captivated the world with its truly ingenious ad recasting the Beastie Boys song “Girls” as a mini-feminist anthem to the backdrop of young girls building and breaking things. (The ad did get the company embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit with the band, though.) 
 
 “Girls, you think you know what you want,” they sing. “You like to buy us pink toys, and everything else is for boys.” 
 
 LEGO’s new “Research Institute” set is on track to be released in August 2014, the company said.
– People in wheelchairs now have something in common with astronauts, knights, and pirates: a Lego figure to call their own. NPR reports Lego will release its first figure with disabilities in a set called "Fun at the Park" this June. (The set and figure can be seen in a video here.) The Lego man sitting in a wheelchair was spotted at a toy fair in Germany earlier this week and confirmed by the company Thursday. "We've got genuine tears of joy right now," CNN quotes the organizers of a campaign called Toy Like Me, which received 20,000 signatures on a petition asking Lego to represent children with disabilities in its toy sets.