The LEGO Ideas theme, which started in 2008 as an offshoot of the Japanese website Cuusoo, then formally known as LEGO Cuusoo, is based around a website which allows users to submit ideas for LEGO products to be turned into potential sets available commercially. If fellow users in the LEGO Ideas community up vote the project to 10000 then LEGO Group has a committee which votes on whether to build the set and release it. If the project is approved and cleared for production, it is developed and later released as an official set under the "LEGO Ideas" banner and the original designer receives 1% of the royalties and a number of free sets. Typically, a few projects are approved a year and most are rejected due to various restrictions.
2010 LEGO Sets
2010 marked the debut of Collectible Minifigures Series 1 and 2, launching a global collector phenomenon. LEGO expanded its Disney partnership with Cars under DUPLO and Toy Story sets in minifigure scale, while Prince of Persia joined the lineup alongside Star Wars sets celebrating The Empire Strikes Back’s 30th anniversary. New original themes included Atlantis, Hero Factory (successor to BIONICLE), World Racers, and Kingdoms, a return to historically inspired castle play. Several older lines ended, including Agents, Bob the Builder, Indiana Jones, and Thomas & Friends.