Having an issue with my game. The last few times I’ve played the game will completely shut off after the 2 or 3 ball when it enters either the left or right vuk. Ball 1 or 2 or 3 can go into the vuk with no problem then all of a sudden a hard shutdown.
I’ve asked jjp and they very promptly replied. Good suggestions, check for loose connections, make sure no wires are getting pinched by the vuk’s. I m asking if anyone else as ever had this and suggestions you used to fix.

Some people reported a loose power cord from the game to the wall.

Spreading the "tangs" in the game's socket will tighten it up.

One other thing, the flipper coils cool down much faster after a game and between players.

Right on. Maybe on Hobbit or another game it helps but I only ever installed them on Stranger Things with no improvement.

Thks
That was actually the first thing I checked. Seemed tight but I’ll pull out the cord and reconnect.

I can say it did make a difference on my GnR. I think the GnR games get pretty multi-ball friendly. Also the ball times on TH are really long. No time really for the coils to cool down like on other titles.

I have had hour long games on Hobbit, no issues. Maybe the flippers fade a little but I've had no real issues with making shots.

Anyone know of a cool shooter rod plate I could get?

Does someone have a spare sculpted book from the art of pinball? Would love to have one. If you have one please let me know. Thanks!!

No, but you can make your very own one of a kind!
Tools needed: Jig saw, drill, drill bit, color printer (sander or sandpaper)
Materials needed: Water slide decal paper, color printer, spray paint, krylon clear coat, double sided tape or hot glue gun

Cut the plate, drill the hole/s, sand the cuts - if you have a butane torch flame treat the sides for a more finished touch
Paint the plate, print the decal, apply the decal, spray clear over decal, apply tape to backside and stick on machine

Admire your work so much you offer a service to custom print/make whatever customer wants on plate. Make money.

I have an issue with my Hobbit where the ball comes down the right ramp and sometimes hops out of the ramp instead of dropping onto the rollover switch in the lane. This only happens with the right ramp and never with the left. I am not sure if it is because I have my game sat too steep or if maybe the ramp just needs some adjusting. Intentionally when I looked at my ramp I noticed it was bend in a little which I think is assisting in this happening. I am wondering if bending it more flat would help but I also noticed looking at other photos, the ramp seems bent on those as well so I'm not sure... Anyone else have this issue?

Pinside_archive_2177_856460 (resized).jpg

I banked my ramp with washers and a little tweaking/bending.

Also set the playfield pitch to 7.2 degrees and adjust the flipper power down, so that the ball easily goes up both ramps from a cradled position, but slows at the top and trickles down the wireforms.

Yeah. I think bending the ramp or an extra washer would help.

Hell I have no clue what pitch my game is at, the damn thing does have a level and I am just using me phone to figure it our. lol

You need a digital torpedo level or angle gauge that shows degrees in 10ths and hundredths.

They are not expensive.

Dude. I tweaked it and stuck an extra washer in, 99% success rate.

Done

Great job! It definitely helps a lot.

Games that are perfectly "Dialed in" play so much better.

100%

Hey everyone....just wanted to let all know that the Hobbit Apron mod that many of you have been asking about is now available to ship via Cointaker.com. She has a small amount available for immediate shipping now. A few people that had pre ordered the original design have received them and we have had stellar remarks about the craftsmanship and quality of the product and how much it adds to the game play overall. Feel free to reach out to me via pm or directly to Cointaker to order today as they are going to be a very limited product that will only be available from Melissa at CT. Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that she now has them available for immediate shipping

The Hobbit Apron Mod was pretty easy to install. Only thing that I tweaked was the brightness and contrast on the screen a little to match the playfield LCD a little closer. (Personal preference) I like it. Makes it easier to see what shots are needed for the book modes, and way easier during the Arkenstone modes.

Thank so much for your review

It’s such a beautiful mod and worth picking up if you plan on keeping your game forever like I do. Matt and Aaron were very communicative and made the decision to purchase one easy.

+1 that the picture out of the box isn’t great. Definitely lower the brightness to match the book LCD better.

FYI. Perfect match IMO.

2023-08-29 18.38.33 (resized).jpg

Thanks so much for such kind words. It is really a beautiful piece that really enhances the overall look and feel of the game.

Thanks to Matt and Aaron for a great product!

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Ooof. Considering the poor handling of the Rudys Nightmare kit they offered (there's a thread on it) also speaking from personal experience, it's a good thing this is a limited run. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing over there and the accountability is essentially nonexistent. If there's a future need I'd highly recommend you utilize Pinballlife. Those peeps are always on top of their game!

I’m sorry that you had a bad experience with the Rudy deal, but we have worked side by side with Melissa for years and hold CT to with the highest regards. Again, I hate you had a bad experience and I don’t know any of the details involved in that situation, but I haven’t personally ever had anything other than great experiences working with Melissa and Chris. They are truly good people that do so much more than most know behind the scenes to help bring a lot of new products to the market that would otherwise likely not be made available to us. Thanks so much for your support on this product as we really worked hard on it to bring something unique to the community.

We do not manufacturer the kits and unfortunately it took longer than they anticipated to build.

Still looking for a topper for my Hobbit. I would even be open to working with someone to design/prototype one if someone is up for it. Seems like such a great title to have a kick ass topper on.

Learn something every day! I've always wondered what the hell that target was for.

Does it do anything else?

Easy enough to make your own.
Option #1 - 1/8" plexi glass, design the graphics and print/have printed on water slide decal paper, make a stand with an 1/8" channel and place 1/8" programmable RGBW LED strip in the channel.
Option #2 - Same as above with exception of substituting water slide with vinyl decal.
Want fancy? Then cut plexi glass into desired shape instead of rectangle.
Install Windows program paint.net. Download desired picture/s and use the magic wand to isolate the image/s you want. Combine them together by using layers. IF the image is bigger than what a standard color printer allows then go to a Kinkos and have them print it for you.
You can probably get away with a total cost of ~$125 give or take doing it yourself or ~$200 if you need someone to print it for you.

If anyone has the "Gate at Bag End" mod installed I would recommend removing it. My game came with it installed and the mod broke the other day so I decided to remove it from the game all together. IMO... The game plays so much better without it installed and also the way it was designed.

Food for thought.

hhhmmmm, I just installed it and really thought it was a nice addition. The main reason I like it is because it eliminates pop bumper back down the bag end entry right down the middle ball loss scenario. My 2 cents though. Probably subjective for sure.

I've had it installed on my Hobbit for quite a while now and no regrets. I think it improves pop bumper related gameplay and corrects a design shortcoming. IMHO of course.

The gate at bag end is a huge improvement to the game. Best mod I've installed. Pops were barely active before.

I actually removed the bagend mod. Nothing but problems. Yes, it is installed correctly, but in the first ~15 of game play I had 5 incidents. 3 the ball getting stuck under the gate itself and 2 ball stalled out against it requiring a shakedown to break free. Others have reported random issues of it resting dead "against" the gate so that wasn't a shocker but when the gate is certainly installed correctly and free swinging and it traps the ball requiring the removal of glass? Nope. She came out immediately.
Honestly I don't have too many STDM's happening anyway.

Stuck balls would be a concern for me, but I haven't experienced that with the gate mod on my game.

It has been a while, but I don't recall SDTM drains being a common issue before I installed the gate mod either. Rather, it was lack of pop bumper action that spurred me to add the mod. Only two pops plus multiple exits seemed to limit it quite a bit.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4780354

Just a few cents of PLA, a paperclip, and some double sided tape. Test both ways for pennies.

Yeah having that mod in the game is like cheating IMO, not as the game was designed. I enjoy the randomness of the ball rolling back out of the pops and rarely get a SDTM. Plenty of action in the pops as well!

Whatever. It's your game.

Enjoy.

What is this bag end mod you guys are talking about and where is it available? Pics?

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1305-travahontas-mods/04739-gate-at-bag-end-mod-for-the-hobbit

Not sure about that bag end mod. I don't think I'd want it changed in this way from how the game was designed. I've never had a huge problem with sdtm from the pops so I don't see what problem it's solving. I do agree it sometimes feels like the pops are underutilized, but not enough for me to make this change. To each their own.

Hobbit is still my #1 favorite game and I'll come back in 10 years and say the same thing. It'll be the last game to leave my home.

Pretty much how I feel about it.

I played my game for 2 months with it installed (at least) and then one day it broke. I was pretty bummed at the time until I played the game without it installed and I was like, shit... This plays better without it!

Just me and just how my game is sat up, yours may play different.

If anyone is experiencing lifeless pop bumpers on their Hobbit, try adjusting switch 71 for better bumper action!
I've owned my LE since it was new, and early on I noticed that the pop bumper action wasn't great. The rubber ring above the top two bumpers was broken from being pinched between the ball guide and the plastic. While I was replacing it, I saw that there's a switch behind that rubber - switch 71, the "Pop Bumper Area Rubber" switch. It activates the upper two pop bumpers and gives a lot more action when it's working correctly. It was out of adjustment and didn't work even with the new rubber until I adjusted it.
My game came from JJP with the pinched rubber and misadjusted switch. It's easy to pinch and nick that rubber because of how sharp the edge of the ball guide is right up against it.
The pop bumpers are way more lively with switch 71 adjusted with a minimum gap.
I don't think the game was designed to have the ball bang around extensively in the pop bumpers. That would make it too easy - you should have to make multiple shots to get enough hits. But it helps a lot to have the "Pop Bumper Area Rubber" switch adjusted closely so that you get a few more hits each time you go up there.
My strategy for modes that require pop bumper hits is to shoot up the orbits and let the magnet drop the ball right into the pop bumpers. It will usually hit the bumper and then hit the rubber above it, which triggers the top 2 bumpers again. The rubber is close enough to the pop bumpers that the ball will be struck by the bumper rings right after it hits the switch above the bumpers. This gives you more hits because you score a "hit" each time the ball hits a bumper or when it hits the upper rubber.
Kind of long-winded, but I think this is more likely JJP's design intent for this feature. I like my games to be difficult. I've put almost 1000 plays on it and have only killed Smaug once. My high scores are only in the 1.5 million range. I think games should be set up to be difficult to beat. If you're hitting the wizard modes every game, it's set too easy IMHO.
JJPHobbitPopBumperAreaSwitch71 (resized).jpg

Yup. I agree.

I'm a decent player but not a great one and for me personally, I find Hobbit to play on the easier side. The last thing I want to do is cheat the game to make it easier, especially when it wasn't designed that way. I've killed Smaug several times but I certainly can't do it ever time I play. Beating those mini wizard modes are pretty changeling for me and I have yet to start the 3rd one. I don't know what it is but I always miss the shot to start it once lite, 3x now!

I think the shape of the gate has to be addressed to solve the ball hang problem at the right post.

Still waiting to hear back from Travahontas on my replacement, it's nice that he is offering one but there is nothing saying that he will deliver as of yet.

Im hoping for a re-design.

I love the gate but hate all the ball hangs.