Quoted from dirtbag66:

Sweet Jesus. We might actually get news on Lawlor's game soon! That's by far the only reason I've kept track of TH's progress.

Quoted from iepinball:

The first test machine left the factory today. Going somewhere in NYC early next week apparently.
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Quoted from paynemic:

Any chance there's a hobbit pin in the wild near Chicago? I'm heading there next week...

Quoted from brucipher:

I hope someone takes some good video of the machine in action in the tournament!

Quoted from TaTa:

She just informed me of this after I ordered the extra head assuming I was going to inquire about it. Knowing my machine was made already and was told before that the head was going to ship separately, I knew I had time. Besides, I didn't like how dirty the playfield protector looked after so many plays on it. Same goes for the RasCals...they make the pin look like a cheap hooker. Not that I know what a cheap hooker looks like

Quoted from fluffybunny:

I have been waiting for a couple of days to post my impressions from TPF, wanted to read a bit what people are saying and catch up on some older posts since I haven't been around pinside for a while.
First off..I am a preorder customer I have an SE and ordered May 2013. That said I am blown away by this game. Everyone knows the history of the game being redesigned after expo, and wow did they hit it out of the park. Pictures online or video do not do this game justice, just like WoZ.
Code is early and you can tell, I would not be surprised to see another multiball mode added to the game. Even with the early code there is still a TON to do. The rules sheet just covers the basic overview but it does not cover going down into the rules. I attended the seminar and that helped, as well as talking with Butch Peel who was around really helped me to get a good handle on the basics by the end of the weekend. Just looking at the playfield and the rules sheets does NOTHING to explain the game and how it plays.
A couple of examples of the rules so far as I have figured them out, the pop ups that everyone has been complaining about? Well that starts beast multiball. You have to hit all 4 beasts then that starts multiball. The beasts pop up when you roll over the corresponding inlane. If you miss it you can hit the inlane again, or a specific ramp/orbit to light the inlane again to get another chance to hit the beast. The other multiball, you roll over the 4 lock targets then the right ramp lights up green with lock, hit that 3 times you start smaug multiball. Now the modes..You have to hit the drop targets to make the mode available for example dwarf, that qualifies dwarf modes which I think there are 4 of those. The one mode I played was the radagast mode. I'm not sure how I qualified it but I selected that mode by hitting the left ramp, then hit the right ramp to start the mode.(If lock is lit you can hit the ring button to bypass the lock and proceed to the mode start) Mode start the ball goes down to the windlance and you shoot the ball with the ring button to start the mode. Radagast mode then is multiple shots around the playfield, the shot will light up red, it will show on the book, and on the LCD screen what shot you have to hit. There were at least 3 shots that you had to hit then I drained. That is just 1 of 30+ modes.
This game is DEEP, and again you would not know of those rules just looking at the rules sheet, you have to really play it and spend some time with it to understand it. It is tough to get that when you have to stand in line for 20 min to play a game. This game will do very well in the home market where you have time, and free play, to get used to the rules.
The lights, I got what I was looking for with the light shows and I know its only going to get better. I love the sweeps of the lights in this game as well as WoZ. The light show in this game is a little more understated then the in your face bright light show of WoZ but it still is very good. I know there will be more added to it as time goes on.
The toys. Amazing quality toys. The big one Smaug. A lot of people compared it to the GoT dragon, well I played Hobbit, then the next game I played was GoT LE. the dragon in hobbit is so much better intergrated. The detail on the GoT dragon may be a little bit better, not much, but the gameplay integration is so much better in hobbit and that will only be improved. It is my understanding that currently smaug has about 20 lines, when all is said and done there will be about 120 lines for smaug.
The LCD. The LCD in my opinion is better than WoZ. The layout of the information is better, the artistic touches are much better, and the resolution seems better.
As you can tell I am very much impressed with the game and very glad to be getting one. If you have not played one, you can't honestly talk about this game. This is a game you have to play multiple times and see in person to be able to appreciate it.

Quoted from PorkChopExpress:

So I take it no unboxing photos tonight?

Quoted from txstargazer3:

Sorry for the cross-post, but here you go. My Smaug with RAD-cals arrived today.

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