Not because it has started to sell toys with guns (as in the Star Wars sets they now proffer to children) but because they have decidedly stepped away from their 'neutral' toys and entered the world of action figures.

I don't mean neutral as in gender neutral - but I mean it in terms of children's play stories. With old Lego, children made up their own stories that went along with the toys. Children's play stories are very important. 

The trouble is that neutral toys - like Crayons, sandboxes, and construction sets no longer make as much money as toys that incorporate licensed characters from television or movies.

So, no longer content with selling "classic LEGO" or products that support a theme, such as Spaceport, Jungle, or City, LEGO has decided to create their own story to support with toys.

Welcome to the dark world of the Bionicles.

(if you've got the time and the bandwidth, try out the very Myst-like world that you can explore)