Bionicle (stylized BIONICLE) is a line of toys by the LEGO Group marketed primarily for 5- to 16-year-olds. The line was launched on December 30, 2000 in Europe and June/July 2001 in Canada and the United States. "Bionicle" is a portmanteau constructed from the words "biological" and "chronicle", which is also actually derived from the word "bionics". The concept is similar to Lego Group's earlier themes, Slizers/Throwbots and RoboRiders in that each of those lines had characters based on classical elements. Earlier Bionicle packages had displayed the Technic Logo, but it has since been phased out, evolving Bionicle into its own branch of LEGO. It has recently been announced by the director of LEGO that they will stop making new Bionicle sets after Winter 2010 "for the foreseeable future". However, while production of sets will stop, the story will not, as Greg Farshtey will continue to update it on the website. Bionicle was replaced by Hero Factory, which was released later in July 2010.