I went as well. (That's actually me in the bottom right corner of the first image. =D) It was pretty good for the very first year of something I didn't expect to even happen, and there were some good builds as well.
Also, That's not Barad-dûr, that's the tower of Orthanc.
Also-also, they weren't. I thought so too, but after some time of searching I never found the one Star Wars set I own, 8009 TECHNIC R2D2.
(And while it could be argued that that's a TECHNIC set, the box art marketed it as a Star Wars set, and even if it is a TECHNIC set, it's at least about half Star Wars.)
(And I also didn't see 10188 Death Star there, so yeah. J=)