Bionicle (stylized as BIONICLE) is a line of construction toys created by The Lego Group marketed primarily for 5-to-16-year-olds. Originally a sub-theme of Lego’s Technic series, the line was launched in 2000 in Europe and Australia and 2001 in North America. Over the following decade, it became one of the Lego Group's biggest-selling properties and helped play a part in saving the company from its financial crisis of the late 1990s. In 2010, the theme was discontinued and subsequently “replaced” with a successor toy line called Hero Factory, which featured a similar building system. Bionicle was later relaunched in 2015 as a rebooted franchise featuring toy sets utilizing pieces introduced in Hero Factory.