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Thanks Mr Guarnieri!! The hobbit is fantastic!!!

Nice score!

I'm happy to see so many people excited about their Hobbitses

I am posting this entry in this particular thread because the owner's thread seems to be more current than some of the others. I need your help. My e-mail account on my AOL account went crazy this morning. Some strange e-mail was sent to a bunch of people on my address book. It happened right after I received an e-mail from Jersey Jen saying she was going on maternity leave. I haven't received an e-mail from her in over a year. So why now (I do have a game on order)? Did anyone else receive this e-mail? Could it be the cause of my problems? PS - I'm computer illiterate. JLC

My The Hobbit Smaug ships tomorrow! Fingers crossed for a delivery Friday

I did not receive an email from Jen, and I have a Hobbit on order. My guess is your problem happened before you got the email from Jen, and one of the spam emails was sent to Jen and you received her automatic "out of office" reply.

^^^^^Thanks Bru'. That makes sense as her e-mail was titled "automatic reply". I wonder what triggered this intrusion upon my e-mail. I sure hope it doesn't harm anyone or myself. JLC

Has anyone done metal sling axes yet?

I agree entirely with what you're saying about the cables, but disagree that this was not a JJP QA issue. Maybe my expectations are to high, but I would have expected the Sound Tests to have been performed in the factory as part of the QA process. In my game's case this would have immediately flagged an issue due to no sound from the Right hand speaker. Surely it is not too much to expect that this type of test be performed prior to boxing and shipping.

I agree with you. Cables dont go bad in shipping.

Cables can go bad in shipping since they are just crimped connections.
I have had expensive (monster) cables work for only a single insertion. Problem was that the crimp was too heavy and cut the wires off so that in test it was only "touching" and worked perfectly until it was unplugged and then never worked again. Unplugging/slightly bending the cable pulled the barely touching wires away from the contacts, it was a curiosity until I cut it open to examine it.

This has happened more than once.

So basically what works perfect in testing may not work in the field, there are many variables, again JMHO but connector failure is the bane of computers, cars, spacecraft and pinball....but cables are cheap, replace it and move on to the next challenge...

Just set up the game. Plays perfectly with a few minor tweaks

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Nice congrats!

What tweaks did you make?

I put green on one of mine

Drew are those the new "thin' Titan Flipper Bands? I ordered them.

Cool gold coin flipper covers from Matt it looks like...

Those are nice for sure.

Just esthetic tweaks then Drew?

Those are the perfect play rubbers from pinball life.

Plugs were out of the computer in the bottom of the cabinet, small part of the "t molding" on back box was bent over from the shipping material. Also bent the metal under the ring button a hair so it didn't scratch the glass. Came with software 1.21 with a born on date of 7/26

Mods - inner cabinet art, green rubbers, LED kit from pinball bulbs and the green plastic protectors.

Drew - are those "coins" on the flippers REALLY secure? Curious if they will start to fall off. They look good. Kind of a compliment design to the ruby slippers on the WOZ flippers.

I am not a fan of the coin flippers - but I would love Matt to make some more mods for the Hobbit. I really am glad I got the pin.

I told myself I would only get 1 pin and that is all - all I have room for. But, well, I am going to get WOZ next (soon). JJP pins are just over the top awesome in my book. Just 1 more pin and that is all

Woz is a must if you can pull it off. The two are amazing together.

Yes they are very secure for a home use environment.

How many Smaug SE's did they limit it to? I know LE's are 1500, but what about Smaug.....Were they fewer since they are sold out?

Put this on the JJP forums but thought I'd post here too to gather more data. Wanted to ask if anyone else has a ton of left ramp rejects. So many of my shots rattle around the junction at the top then come back down either side of the ramp, quite frustrating. Flippers are at the factory-set value and are just about the right power, if not just a hair under what I'd like. Thinking that increasing power will only increase the rejections too since the clean, hard shots are the ones that reject most often.

One example, slow-motion video: https://goo.gl/photos/8MzHMcSchLYmcvRBA

I have tried multiple settings to get it dialed in. I am 1 up from default of left and 2 up on right. I find if you hit it clean it rockets up and around the ramp, but miss it and it will rattle and come back down, if you increase the strength it will rattle and go flying all over the place. Your shot needs be solid and accurate, especially when backhand flipping the ramps.

Very proud to say I joined the club today! My LE finally showed up! Only one wire under the playfield came disconnected in transit. I am having problems getting the lockbar to lock. Seems to be catching on something. Haven't figured out what yet. Any advice?

Two brass screws on the lockdown bar receiver and be used to raise or lower the locking mechanism as needed.

LTG : )

500 SE. 1500 LE

I have a SE #556

Hmmm that's interesting....

I must be mistaken then . Anyone else on that question

SE weren't limited to a number but only available for order for a certain time! Also, SE owners picked what number they wanted so someone, technically, could have picked #1234!

Oh really I didn't know that. I took over someone's preorder.

So are the SE's a subset of the 1500 LE's? In otherwords, SE + LE = 1500?

No.

Where on the playfield would you add more mylar?

Pretty sure they are making up to 1500 SEs even though they said there was 2 months or so to order, distributors can order them now still I believe.
Can't blame them...

No, 1500 LEs are being produced with them numbered 1-1500
SEs were only produced up till December, I believe it was, 2014. So anyone, including distributors, could order as many SEs as they wanted until the deadline. Once the deadline past "no more SEs will be produced"! Since the SEs were a special edition and they weren't limited to a specific number the buyer(s) could pick any number that they wanted. You could select #103 or you could select #9999.

The Smaug drop into the lock. That is unprotected even with the playfield protector.

I think the number for the SE has to be below 1500 and not already taken by another SE. At least I think that is what Jen told me when I was determining my number. Seems like I recall asking if I could do my anniversary year 1997 and she said no.

I ended up with SE 835 - and there CAN be an LE 835 (I think)

so the question remains how many SE are made?

I thought it was 1,500 of both SE and LE. So 3,000 total. Wasn't there a flyer floating around that showed all 3 models and how many of each were being made?

When I asked Jack about this he advised "I have no clue now how many will be ordered, there could be numbers missing. People want #1234 Ok with me". Now this was back in October 2014 so things might have changed!

Good point, my understanding is that if you had an LE on order you could 'convert/upgrade?' it to an SE version at no charge But had to do so before the end of 2014. And there are 1500 LEs possible. That is where my math was, but I suppose JJP 'could have' sold more than 1500 at 9000 a piece before the end of 2014 but I doubt it.

My wild ass guess is there are 648 SE pins. However, you could buy the trim, decals and gold smaug and have a replica (but the attract mode would be missing - there by exposing the fake). JJP may require you to have an SE before selling you the gold trim or decals, but I doubt it.

If you like the LE more than the SE cool - but I'll bet there will be less SEs than LEs.

My SE shipped today, can't wait to get it!!!!! I'm re-watching all the Hobbit movies in anticipation, LOL

Neither are rare and will be readily available for quite some time. I would highly doubt there were more than 1000 SEs ordered by that "cutoff date", but the secrecy around the actual number really allows JJP to make 5000 SEs if they want to. Makes no difference either way. Neither are rare. Did I say that neither are rare? Just to be safe: neither are rare.

My guess was based on a 'cutoff date' actually being a cutoff date

If there really isn't one, then yeah...1500+ is possible for sure. They could also do a Gandalf SE or whatever later...

Either way, I doubt JJP sells more Hobbits than WOZs. In fact, I still plan on getting a WOZ next year. WOZ is an instant classic to me.