This is Bag End. Will look great on the top right
matamata-45-hobbiton-bag-end.jpg

Especially if the ball could roll in the front door for a ball lock!

Hmmmm, do you think the designers of the set of the movie thought....."Man, one day this could be used in a pinball machine?"

The next big question? That was your first big question!

No, Tolkien thought that when he wrote The Hobbit and included a round door. JRR must have been a pinhead!

You are soooo right! Maybe if we go back and read the Hobbit there is an entire subplot that will take us on a multi-ball journey of sorts. You just have to dig to find it!

I assume whichever "inlane" or "outline" the ball goes down will triger the "pop-up" that matches Org, Goblin, Spider, or Warg? Hope so.

I only hope you're half right, I'm not a fan of having outlanes as a goal.......yeah, drain your ball to raise a troll, unless you get "Special" treatment for doing it of course and the ball back

The more I look at the art the more I like it. Yes, there is room for some improvements.

But man, the overall design and art really grows on you. If this continuous every day my feeling of happiness will rise to ecstatic

I'm not sure how it'll work, but it looks like 'extra' and 'ball' inserts, so I can imagine getting an EB no longer will be a one-shot-lit-sthing. (Kinda like in SFII, where at one point you have to make a combo of shots in time to get an EB). Nice to see some 'standard' things changed (if my assumption is correct).

Tell us more!

Sure, no problem! Here's the whole post you took the quote from...lol

"The next big question on my mind is what are the toys going to be like for this game? WOZ has a lot of toys and features that I think justify its price but is there a comparable amount of toys with TH?

We know that Smaug is going to be the main toy and with the price of this game I'm hoping it's at least as interactive as the castle in MM. If the toy just bends down like the T-Rex in JP and "eats" the ball I think that will be a bummer. I'm also wondering if the character pop ups will also be lock mechanisms with the four "Lock" inserts being right in the middle on the pop ups. It also seems like another toy will be placed in the "Bag End" area of the playfield."

Its a shotters game for sure. Think new innovations mixed with a crazy rule set. It going to tell a story and you will get pulled it. Percition will be key!

Uh-oh...somebody's been hitting the sauce again...

That sounds good to me! I'm sure Keith is going to put together another deep quest based ruleset for The Hobbit.

As far as Smaug goes do you or anyone else think that there will be a shot into the toy MM castle style? Currently I see 5 drop targets in front of Smaug with 3 /5 on the right having stand up targets behind them. Is it possible that the 3 drop targets on the right are on a motorized target bank similar to the target bank in Tron and Spiderman? If not I'm curious how Smaug will interact with the ball then, especially with Jack saying that the toy will be very interactive.

TH playfield artwork is miles ahead of WOZ. But that's just my opinion. BTW, WOZ playfield artwork wasn't hand drawn. It was done in Photoshop too. Greg explained a couple years back how he created it.

Photoshop is just a tool, when people complain about it they're just using the name as a shorthand for a particular kind of cut and paste style.

I actually haven't looked at a bare WOZ playfield image in a while, it's interesting to go back and examine it knowing what the final product looks like:

WOZ-playfieldart.jpg

I'm pretty sure you can shoot into him some how. The ball will end up going to a subway and get kicked out.

Funny. I consider the T-REX eating the ball more interactive than the castle in MM.

I think the T-Rex is a cool toy and is interactive (more than a lot of pin toys) but the castle in MM has multiple interactive features. There's the draw bridge that moves up and down, the door that swings open, the wall shot towards the left and the "exploding" feature.

That is not interacting but reacting

both the MM toy and JP dino are some of the best toys in pinball.

I've said to Balcer and Jack it would be cool to have Smaug grab the ball and move it to his hoard of treasure for a real ball lock. It also sounds like the tail may interact somehow also. Can't wait to see it in action.

With the 4 lock rollovers in the middle of the pf and Smaug there in the picture, may be the route they are going with that. Don't know. Lite the 4 rollovers, hit Smaug ball saucer on the left of the 5 targets and lock a ball ?

This toy could be like a movie every one says is fantastic no matter how good it is you feel let down because your expectations were so high.

Just my opinion, but I see some of the Hobbit PF art complaints in the WOZ PF art...

Got a chance to see WOZ at the Allentown show - damn cool pin.

Can't wait to see the Hobbit when it's all said and done. Like the PF art so far, but agree with some of the complaints - how can you not?! I would imagine it is going to be a deep, deep game that will be an instant classic.

*** looking under couch cushions for extra change as we speak ***

With all I've read about TH in the last week, it seems that everyone is obsessed with critiquing the playfield art. That's fine because some great suggestions have been made. But personally I find the playfield schematics much more interesting to look at.

I know certain things are missing on the new diagram. The kickback on the LT out lane is missing, as well as the two magnets at the top of the LT & RT loops. There's space on the playfield artwork for the magnets, so I'm sure they're still in the game. How else would the ball stop & drop into the pop bumper area and subway entrance.

Of course there are no parts shown that are related to Smaug. However I keep trying to figure out the ball lock mechanism. I feel the clue is the rail on the far lower LT side of the playfield, and this is where the locked balls will end up. This rail connects to nothing, but it is placed right above the kickback, so that when they're released, they'll be fired back into play.

I'm guessing that Smaug's tail will attach to this rail & the balls might roll down the tail to lock. I can see his body stretching over the upper LT playfield on a pile of gold (full of fiber optics to sparkle), which may be a tunnel over the LT ramp. The locking/diverting mechanism might be located in this tunnel. His left claw/wing would be integrated into the diverter controlling the U-ramp at the top center. His head would be over the main Smaug area, which might rotate back & forth like a cannon, letting him fire the balls back at the player.

The Smaug kill shot seems like it will fire up from the kickback to the upper RT flipper, then you'll have to hit the LT VUK, the bank of drop targets, or some variation of that. I'm sure it will require multiple tasks to make that happen. I hope so because it should be extremely difficult & satisfying when you finally do defeat him!

Am I right? Mostly likely not. Obviously there's still a ton that hasn't been revealed. But it's fun to speculate

hobbit schematic 2.jpg

Here Here!

I agree with this...I think Smaug will place the balls on that habitrail as a physical lock.

My guess for Smaug's tail is that it will be the diverter where the two ramps cross over (at the middle-top of the playfield). This is based on the playfield schematic that was in the machine at the last JJP open house.

--Luke

Also, I think there is a diverter on the Bilbo ramp that gets the ball off the ramp and into the Smaug area. You can see the diverter in the latest schematic just to the left of the "Smaug" text. You can clearly see the diverter in the two whitewood videos that were previously posted (see the circled area in the attached picture). It isn't activated in those videos, but it's there.

--Luke

HobbitWhitewoodDiverter.jpg

An up post diverter? I'm looking at you Metallica

Here's a thought. Perhaps that diverter could be part of the lock mechanism (just speculation). Perhaps the balls stage there near Smaug, so that he can access them at the start of multiball and hurl them out onto the playfield. That would be cool.

I like The Hobbit better
Cannot wait for the plastics art to be added.

What a great idea Hokey to have some sort of fiber optics to light up the pile of gold!

I'm thinking the left wire form feeds the arrow shot at the right drop target bank. Power of the shot will be player controlled. Im thinking the balls will be locked under smaug.

I wonder how "gold" plated pinballs would look like for this game?

Thanks for posting that, I didn't notice the ramp diverter when I first watched those videos. That could be the locking/diverting mech under the gold tunnel I suggested. I still say the balls are getting locked on that LT side rail that connects to nothing. I'll just have to stare at the schematic some more. haha

I was saying that might be whats going to be included awhile back.

I think you're right that the balls will get locked on the lone left habitrail.

--Luke

Whats with the WoZ trees hiding over in the right corner?

It's an early whitewood...just put together to see how it shoots and test things out. So they probably just put those on for fun. The latest schematic released by JJP has barrels over the pops.

--Luke

We are pretty much 6 months away from release of the game at this point. The third film comes out December 17th. I can remember when the wait was well over a year.

Me too...it feels like 6+ months ago.

Looks promising

The Hobbit - The Battle of the five armies.jpg

THAT's that photo that needs to be on the playfield of Smaug. The one currently there is about the size of his tail in that photo.
Total redraw requested.

agree I really thought he would be more predominate on the playfield art. Poster looks bad ass! the Smaug on the PF art is dinky......... here is hoping the toy is "MASSIVE"

That's what she said!

Only problem with putting the poster on the playfield is that the name of the game is The Hobbit.

And that ain't no hobbit in the photo.

Poster looks sweet. Hopefully we hear more about the Hobbit at the JJP open house.

--Luke