First reactions:

I'm a huge JJP fan but even I'm a little bummed right now looking at the artwork. I thought that the lower playfield artwork would contain more of the Shire and get "darker" (location wise) as you moved up the playfield or be split down the middle with good and evil like WOZ. Having the mountain artwork near the top of the playfield would have have been a better fit with Smaug in my opinion. The playfield artwork for WOZ just pops and is one of the best in pinball in my opinion but this leaves a lot to be desired after my first look.

The first Hobbit film can at times give off a relaxing vibe (idk how else to say it haha, think Fellowship of the Ring) with scenes of the Shire yet little of that is represented here. Charm is the word I'm looking for when I think about it.

Second look reactions:

The artwork is growing on me a bit and does look cool after I've looked at it for a while. I can see why some the design choices were made and the look fits well with the theme. To be fair we still need to see the game with all of its toys / features to judge it properly. WOZ's playfield artwork doesn't look nearly as impressive without its toys shown. Once I start thinking of TH with its character pop up toys, stainless steel ramps and metal rails I think the game is going to look amazing.

Sorry Aurich but saying The Hobbit is a rehash for Keith is not cool. TH layout doesn't even resemble LOTR's at all and will play completely different. If you want to talk rehashes then just look at Sterns new Star Trek layout which is a stripped down version of the STTNG layout.

Its also your opinion that The Hobbit films are not very good. Many people would disagree with you and the nearly $2 billion in ticket sales for the first two films is proof of that. As a huge fan of the LOTR and TH books I think Peter Jackson has done an amazing job of representing the world of Middle Earth on the big screen...if he didn't Return of the King wouldn't have won 11 Oscars. If I there's one bad thing I had to say about the TH films its that I dislike the 48fps versions which just look and "feel" terrible to traditional 24 fps films in my opinion.

Hmmm, so all of those dwarves from TH are in LOTR as well? Smaug is there in the Fellowship of the Ring right? The plot lines for both trilogies are entirely different. Sorry not a rehash by any means.

I think it may be a while before we hear anything regarding another Hobbit update. The good news is that the first game should hopefully be shipping in 6 months.

I wonder how long we will have to wait to see the Smaug toy? I can see JJP saving that reveal for Expo.