It takes a resilient ego to put the tools of your trade into someone else’s hands and challenge them to do better. But that’s the explicit purpose of LEGO IDEAS: to involve the fans in creating brand new LEGO sets, available for purchase.
Here’s how it works: A dedicated fan conceives of a set, builds it using bricks, and uploads it to the LEGO IDEAS website. The LEGO community then votes on whether it will support and buy it, should the set become available for purchase. Ten thousand votes of support are required for official review. And should LEGO approve of the concept, the build will be redesigned by a LEGO designer and eventually make it to store shelves, with the originator earning 1% of the total net sales.
Source: IGN.com Spoooky LEGO Dinosaur Skeletons for Halloween (Can Fossils Be Spooky?)