In 2012 LEGO released 2 Ideas sets across 2 subthemes. The largest Ideas set from 2012 was
21102 Minecraft Micro World The Forest with a piece count of 480 and a retail price of $34.99. The current estimated value of all these Ideas sets from this year is about $353.08 which represents a 415.5% growth.
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.
2012 LEGO Sets
2012 was a very important year for LEGO license themes, namely, the contract with Lucasfilm was renewed to extend Star Wars sets until at least 2022. The LEGO Group also celebrated its 80th anniversary in August of that year. 2012 also marked the year for one of the largest number of new and important themes being released which included The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Super Heroes, Monster Fighters, Friends and LEGO Friends. With the introduction of all these new themes LEGO did discontinue a number of beloved themes in 2012 which included Alien Conquest, Atlantis, Pharaoh's Quest, Kingdoms and Harry Potter which did make a return six-years later, thankfully.