I must admit when reading that these might be our last waves of Hobbit and LOTR, i wasn't surprised..
I have had the same amount of joy over this line as everyone else, acquired a few of the best sets, and been following the new releases with a little grin on my face very time.. Not because the sets were terrible, but because i think that you could sense where TLG had to go with these sets, contrary to what they might have expected. These are all just wild guesses, but when i had my younger brothers, who are in the target group, talking about the LOTR and Hobbit lines they weren't really that amazed about it as i was, which was ironic since i am the adult.. Simply because they don't recall the LOTR movies as part of their childhood. They are too young..
TLG made some LOTR sets, and i think this was a bold and cool move. Which turned into some great sets. But it was mostly grey bricks all over. In my humble opinion i think they gave us the best out of the line that was possible this time around.. And we got our minifigs
The Hobbit as a motion picture has disappointed me a lot, and my thoughts go out to TLG as this must be a struggle when it has been stretched over 3 movies.. It has already been discussed, and i won't go deeper into the sets ;) I bought Bag End, and might get the WKB..
And thinking of the iconic pieces in both LOTR and Hobbit stories, it just has to be a struggle trying to make these into affordable and playable sets. Organic forms like Balrogs, Mumaks and huge building like Minas Tirith.. I would rather let the AFOL community handle these.. ;)
I would love a Cirith Ungol in all white trans bricks though….. ;)