I've been meaning to bling out my Hobbit, but I haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet. I have collected a list of mods for blades, mini-figures, and lighting, but I'm curious what others have done and still love. Also, one thing I have not been able to find are target decals. These seems like an obvious mod, but my googling skills have failed me to date.

Please share your favorite mods for this amazing machine. I really want to make it show piece.

Thanks!

What is the max power draw on The Hobbit? I'm thinking on putting my pins on a smart power strip, but it has a fairly low limit.

I want to attach an external subwoofer to my Hobbit. It looks like there is an open RCA connection on the sound board. It's the open socket rightmost in picture next to the yellow connection. Should I use that?

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I have a rare but annoying issue. Curious if anyone has run into this and knows a fix for it.

Everyone once in a while, a ball stays at the bottom of the right hole. It's out of view when looking down, but it rolls into the VUK mechanism when I left the machine from the left. Looking at the ramp underneath, I can see how a ball could rest in the gap between the ramp and the VUK.

Last time this happened was during a multi-ball. I assume a ball was rolling down the ramp while another was in the VUK, but not yet ejected. The rolling ball collided and rolled back and before coming to a rest in the gap. Pure speculation that's what happened, but somehow a ball is resting out of view in that hidden ramp.

Thoughts?

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Assuming I can trust the app on my phone, it shows 14.7°.

Never mind, noob mistake. I measured the glass inclination. The playfield is at 6.6°.

I'm a total beginner at pinball. Slow and floaty is just fine in my book! But I'll try to pitch a degree more and report back. Since nobody else seems to have run into this issue, maybe that will be enough. Otherwise, I'll reach out to JJP. BTW, I'm also the first owner of this Smaug edition. Such a fun package, but I haven't played it as much as my other machines.

I ordered a digital level so I can dial in the inclination to 7.2°. I'm not trusting the app on my phone for that.

In the meantime, are there any decals to make the yellow plates behind the drop targets less boring? (Sorry for the blurry photo!)

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Those look great! Thanks for sharing!

Okay, so I'd like to adjust the inclination of my playfield to 7.2°, but where should I measure that? It looks like I get different values at different spots on the playfield. Very confused...

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I’ll continue tweaking it, but as it is, my front feet are almost at the lowest and my rear feet are already at the highest position. And the ball eject takes 5 tries before it finally gets the ball out. That’s probably a strength adjustment, but to me, this feels already too steep. Still, I’ll give it a shot and see for myself.

So, I made the pin steeper (but not 7.2°) and the ball got hung again in the track under the playfield. This time, I used a snake camera to find out more about what's going on.

As far as I can tell, it's getting stuck on the rivets. Any suggestions on what I could try to smooth it out?

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I'm the first owner. No work has been done in that area.

I inclined the pin to the max and that doesn't help either. I was hoping to find a solution that did not require experimentation. Alas...

Now that my machine is playing great again, I need some pointers on how to master it. I looked at the modes chart, but was curious if there were any recommended videos or blog posts on strategies for playing it.

What’s the issue with the ramp flaps on the Smaug edition?

I got the mirrored gold blades only to find out my cab is too tight for them. So now I'm pondering if it's possible shave off 1mm of the inside cab. It sounds like a terrible idea, but I'm not one to easily give up! Thoughts?

They are made of metal. Pics of them have been posted by another forum member some pages back. They really finish off the gold look on the Smaug Edition.

Unfortunately, there is no wiggle room between the playfield and the cab. It’s tight as hell.

The blade is about 1mm thick. I think that would be even harder.

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I’ll ask some local trades people if they would be up to the challenge. It would entail removing the back box from the hinges and lifting out the playfield. Then lining the inside to protect it from the saw dust. Drawing the outline of the mirror blade and then sanding off about 1mm of wood from the inside of the cab. All that seems feasible, other than being precise enough with the sanding on the depth.

I’m really bumped out that I can’t just install the mirror blades. The Smaug Edition is a such a beautiful machine with the exception of the plain black sides on the cab.

With regard to installing the gold blades, I got the version listed as compatible with JJP. It has holes where the bolts for the backbox hinge are, but they look too small to go over the bolts. Do you have to remove the bolts and then reattach them? Confused modder here...

I messed up on one of the strips by attaching it to the wrong side. Tooke me a few minutes to realize once I had installed it. It peeled off easily and went on right away again. So, definitely noobie friendly!

I finally got the inside mirror blades installed. It's a tight fit! In particular, the front screws cause some friction. I'm thinking on using glue, but not sure if there's a better alternative or even what type of glue use to bond metal to wood.

Any suggestions?