I really hate to say it but I think as soon as the hype of The Hobbit film trilogy runs its course the whole Middle-Earth theme in GW will end.
The LOTR SBG got me into this utterly astounding hobby a little over a decade ago, and the same range brought me back a year or two after the War of the Ring rulebook was released. Then, once again, with the Goblin Town release I was enthusiastic about painting tiny pieces of plastic to my hearts content all over again. Then GW delivered three main blows to hobbyists like myself that made me reconsider my hobby and the use of my wallet:
1. Finecast - not majorly problematic, but of the £80 or so I spent on various finecast products I'd say about £60 was a complete waste. To this day I don't know how GW managed to make me part with so much money on an appalling quality of product.
2. Cost - tied with the above. GW is NOT an expensive hobby, all my other friends spend about three times the amount I spend a month on this hobby, and their interests range from athletics to sculpting, to travelling and skiing. But, the costs of the LOTR and Hobbit range ARE excessive.
3. The mutual feeling of others - in my local area, I'd say my GW has lost almost half its customers. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't play the games I just paint and collect, but I know that the seven friends who joined me in my hobby no longer do so, and neither do I. The same goes for many regulars who used to spend days in my local GW, now they sometimes pop in and buy a clam pack, but nowhere near to the level they used to. And I can safely say that having to walk past my store five days a week at both mornings and evenings on my way to and from work, there has never been any more than two customers inside.
I am deeply saddened to say this, but GW made some awful decisions over the past three or four years, that destroyed the hobby for me. I no longer collect LOTR and Hobbit miniatures, and last year sold my entire collection for near enough its original retail value online. Do I miss it, not really.
LOTR and Hobbit will end soon enough, as players become less and less willing to put up with the three above points I mentioned. And their own reasons too, like having to put new careers, hobbies and sometimes even families first, rather than whiling away the hours with miniatures and paint pots. After losing hope with the LOTR and Hobbit SBGs, I made the bold and blasphemous move to WHFB, which in my opinion gets much more attention from GW and its customers than any of its other ranges - in my local store at least. So there is hope, I just can't see these two ranges outliving the next three years at all. Sorry guys and gals, but I genuinely raise my cap to those out there who still enjoy these ranges, you're all braver and brighter people than me!