Mindstorms originated from the programmable sensor blocks used in the line of educational toys. The first retail version of Lego Mindstorms was released in 1998 and marketed commercially as the Robotics Invention System (RIS). The next version was released in 2006 as Lego Mindstorms NXT. The newest version, released in August 2009, is known as Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0.