In shocking twist, Lego’s NASA women set is really popular

Lego’s new “Women of NASA” toy set is already sold out on Amazon — unless you want to shell out $100 more than the original price.

The set shot to number one on Amazon’s best-selling toy list just 24 hours after it went on sale Wednesday for $24.99. By Friday, Amazon was out of stock, though the set is still available from resellers for $124.99.

Maia Weinstock, an editor at MIT News, pitched the idea for the set last year to celebrate the achievements of women at the space agency. “Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the U.S. space program,” the pitch reads. “Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or underappreciated.”

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The set features four women who’ve been integral to NASA’s success:

• Sally Ride, who in 1983 became the first U.S. woman to travel to space
• Mae Jemison, the first black woman to go to space, in 1992
• Nancy Grace Roman, who’s known as “the mother of Hubble,” for her role in developing the Hubble space telescope
• Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, who designed software that let the U.S. land on the moon

Lego’s been criticized for its lack of female figures, notably by a 7-year-old who wrote an open letter to the company in 2014 that went viral.

Cover image: (L. to r.) Astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, the astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, and the computer scientist Margaret Hamilton. (Photo courtesy of Lego)