A good home for The Hobbit... and Lord of the Rings of course!

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Yep, I'm big into combining life size sculptures and replicas with pinball. I've got a pretty cool life-size Venom and Spiderman bust to go with a SM Vault, life-size Davy Jones bust to go with POTC, etc.

I feel the same way about a Jurassic World/Park Pin. I would love to see what JJP could do with that, not a huge fan of the old Data East JP, and I have quite the life-size Dinosaur setup to go perfectly with it!

I'm having the same issue with the playfield lock rollovers after taking off the playfield protector that I paid to have installed by JJP at the factory. I even hired a professional technician that I use for all of my games (when I can't fix something myself) and he showed me that they can only be adjusted so low by adjusting the leaf switches. You literally can't push them down past a certain point because they hit the mount under the playfield... and they are still too high causing airballs and difficulty hitting certain shots. Does anyone know if they installed different rollovers on the machines that came with the playfield protectors? This is driving me nuts.

LTG Any ideas at all? You seem to know a lot about this machine as I look through this forum.

btw... my Smaug magnet isn't catching like it used too (after a software update) either. This used to be my favorite game to play. It's becoming an expensive night light.

That's what he was saying, using spacers for the entire mount underneath. I just wonder how is this not happening to every single Hobbit game and not more of a widespread complaint? They definitely generate airballs and cause for quite a disruption to the path of the ball.

Well, this gives me some hope... I'll check it out when I have a chance. Thanks for the info.

I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to take a look at this. Can you please let me know if you end up finding this to be true? And if so, any pointers. Thanks!

In my case, no matter how much the leaf switches were bent, the rollover buttons were ultimately stopped by the mount underneath. This was before they were low enough to avoid creating airballs. I was really hoping the "washer in the rollover" was the silver bullet for this issue.

ok, please keep us posted as to how that works out. i think that's the only option i have as well.

I apologize in advance if this is something that's already been mentioned before, but on my machine the kickback strength is quite strong and hits the post above the top flipper every time (post to the right of the vuk). I went into settings and the kickback strength was already at the lowest setting of "6". I couldn't make it any weaker. Is there a different way to control the power of that kickback that I'm not aware of. I would consider myself to be a 5 out of 10 on pinball knowledge so even an obvious answer I'm missing could be the right one. Thanks

Hmmm... I just updated it last year to the latest version so I thought I was caught up. But I can double check. Thanks

Thanks, I'm on 3.10 so I think I'm good there. The only change I made was removing the factory playfield protector. Maybe that sped the ball up enough to hit the post instead of going into the area above the flipper.

I’m sure it’s mentioned somewhere, but after searching for 20 mins, I can’t find it. So can someone tell me what to do if Smaug’s mouth stops moving when he talks? I found a post where someone else asked this question but got no answer. After finally dealing with air balls due to rollovers, ramps that were bent in the front, and beasts falling apart... I was starting to love this game again. Yet another issue makes me just want to go back to POTC though. So annoying. Thanks in advance!

Thanks, he didn’t in test mode. I’ll check the wire.

Thanks, I’ll check that too. I’m always amazed out how quick everyone responds in an effort to help. Truly thanks to all. Makes owning pins less stressful lol

Times like this is when I want to take a sledgehammer to the game. I just spent two hours following instructions on how to recalibrate the mouth. Take the assembly off... take apart smaug... follow the calibration settings exactly as explained in the manual... put it all back together without breaking anything else... like I'm disarming a bomb... only to test it and have the mouth shut on me during the test and never open again. WTF. I wish these f-ing things would just work for $9000 GD dollars.

Does anyone know if the mouth is supposed to open and close as you're adjusting min mouth and max mouth configurations? Because when I was trying to adjust those values nothing was happening and I'm not sure if it's supposed to opening and closing in real time or not.

Ok, yeah, mine doesn't do that. Apparently it's completely broken and pooped it's pants at this point. Does anyone know where the right servo motor can be purchased? They don't have any on the JJP site. I created a ticket expressing my frustration. My machine has maybe 300 plays, has had more downtime than uptime, I bought it directly from JJP and it's been in the same place since initial setup. I know it's pinball, but items this expensive should be more reliable, especially HUO. Instead we all have to become mechanical engineers to try and enjoy them. Sorry for venting.

Ok, I'll try looking for that link. Thanks.

Everything else works fine. Mouth just stopped going up and down for some reason.

Thanks, ordered two of them just in case. I assume it's the right motor since it's the same link referenced in another post below.

If you have a chance, would it be possible to get a pic of that connection? I went ahead and ordered a couple motors, I'll also try and check the connection you're referring to, and maybe I could also get a response to my ticket from JJP since I don't think I should be trying to figure this out myself in the first place.

Thanks for this. I'll take a look this weekend when I have some time.

I've done some searches (here and Google) and I'm not finding instructions on how to change out the drop target springs that were part of the update kit. Can someone point me to a location where that is explained? Do I have to remove the entire drop target assemblies? I finally had one break so I guess it's time to do the spring upgrade. Always afraid to bang around in a pin without knowing exactly what to do. Thanks

Thanks as always LTG!

Hobbit for sure. Even though it has driven me crazy at times due to various issues (like right now Smaug's mouth doesn't work and I'm too scared to try and fix it), it's a blast to play. Once you really get it going, and get the mini wizard modes like"Into the Fire", you'll laugh at comparing it to Deadpool. . The sound and theme integration is awesome, and the deep ruleset will keep you coming back over and over. You can attack it differently everytime you play. I like how LOTR and Hobbit look next to each other too.

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Thanks for the compliments. I've set up a similar setting with life-size Dino's for JP Premium whenever I get it from pinball refinery. But yeah, with Hobbit it's added fun when you're playing and look over at a life size Gollum after a successful ring save lol.

Wow, I just had a 2.7 million game and felt like I crushed it. Impressive! I might have to read that write up of yours when I have some time.

I finally got good enough at Hobbit to notice the "weak flippers as gameplay goes on" issue. I think I saw where some of you were installing fans to try and cool flipper coils during gameplay, but has anyone figured out a less invasive/easier solution? Thanks in advance!

What is that?