Quick Epoxy glue and a few hamsterteeth!

Matt, do you think the bottom of Smaugs mouth could have a tongue (or more detail)? It may be something that the teeth could hold/attach to. It would also cover the back mech a bit.

Love the changes! nice work!

Is the new version still going to have the firing mechanism on the lockdown bar / apron?

Can we get some video of this please and more picts from the people @ the show

Yes

OK, we'll have to agree to disagree then. You're not going to change my mind. Maybe redundant is the wrong word, but I think the 3 people who agree with me understand what I am saying. I am guessing the tone and grand nature of the adversary are already sold with the giant toy sculpture of the dragon that will be at the top of the playfield. I'de rather not have the dragon in the center of the PF at all quite frankly, but him smaller with the cool looking Lonely Mountain was OK. Sometimes a little variety is good.

Also, if you look closely it wasn't just the Dragon, Sky and the Lonely Mountain, it also had troops from the battle of 5 armies, now where is that huge part of the 3rd movie... gone.

I'm still buying the machine. You can tell me I am wrong as much as you want, it won't change my opinion of there being too much dragon and not enough of the other stuff that is present in the movies.

I did notice it looks like he is in the process of destroying a town... that makes me like it a few percentage points better.

In my opinion the new PF artwork does match 100% better to the SE, same for the gold Smaug whereas the old mountain artwork (but with the new brilliant colors) I would prefer to the LE and Standard cabinet design. Very good job JJP !

Is there an official presentation time of the hobbit? or is it just in the booth area for people to come by and see/play? If the later, take lots of video and pics if possible

It's still a bad playfield lay-out...

Are you serious? If you don't like fan layouts I guess, but ok. Most of the top games are "fans".

Since you've rated 159 pins, you would be the expert on that huh?

I cannot say anything else that hasn't already been said. The changes look fantastic & I'm very thankful JJP listens to their customers. Once all the changes & the code is revealed, it's going to be something really special

Now please bring on the IAPPA video thread!

As someone who is new to the hobby and quite ignorant as to what's a good or bad layout, why do you feel this is the case?

What does Smaug look now when he is turned around? really hoping we get a "gate of erebor"

hobbitenvironmentereborh305.jpg

Yep tongue and teeth is what I have started on for it, just tweaking fitting all the things in it and the light up eyes the mech and then the wires, lots to fit into that area. Mainly focused on the bottom row of teeth, will have to see on the tops and how it closes together with all things in it. But working on it as we speak.

I guess I'm the only one that like the old VUKs? Looked more finished than wireforms to me.

What exactly is "Book Time"? Perhaps there will be an Easter egg where you can make Levar Burton read you Go the F* to Sleep.

New pics look much better. I'd love to see Smaug's head reach out to the playfield and try to grab the ball.

No room for the gates, the original "rock" as it was called was going to be part of the mountain. Meaning that it would not look like the lonely rock but rather a section of the mountain that turned revealing smaug. The rock and the interesting shape that it was had to look like that to clear the ramps, opto's, gold piles, wires and everything else around it. It did not look so out of place had the rest of the mountain taken over that corner as planned. But with all those things to clear there was no room to make the gates design on it without making smaug smaller. Currently the back of him is the piles of gold going up the sides and the back of his head/ body. Kinda hard to explain but once a video get's posted it should make sense.

Crazy talk

I'm not sold on the wireforms either (not that it matters, I'm not a buyer) - they're so bulky, that they're essentially the same as the metal tubes from before. I guess most people just think wireforms look more 'correct'.

So is it correct that the new Smaug does not rotate to "disappear" into the mountain?

Wireforms trump the clunky plastics they had pasted over them in the Expo prototype.

Glad they are gone.

He doesn't have to actually grab it with his jaws. I'd be happy with a magnet in his chin

So it seems that they changed from a lonely mountain in the back to the pillars instead. That's a great change, as it makes the area around Smaug look like its inside the treasure room. Are you planning on changing the look or layout of the pillars (by integrating them with the LCD book somehow?) Thanks for the info Matt

Legolas and Gandalf should switch places on the apron... just throwing it out there.

Also, Thorin should probably be more prominent than Tauriel.

apron.png

That's what I was thinking looking at the new design before you confirmed. It seemed pretty obvious that the moutain idea had been ditched and replaced with the gold mound and pillars from inside the mountain. It would be awesome if Smaug's head could rise up out of the gold pile but that's probably not workable for the same types of reasons the moutains didn't work out. Its going to be cool to see how it all turns out. Having him turn around and eyes light up, (mouth move?), etc. might have a better effect than a "reveal" from behind the mountain or from under the gold anyway.

That's probably not final. I'm wondering myself where the personalized number plate will go on the apron

How will his head attach to his body that we haven't seen yet and still have it spinning around look ok? I'm hoping not by "not having a body"

I love It. The old playfield looked good, but it didn't grab ya. This one looks awesome, especially at the flippers. Removal of the stand-ups to enter bumpers is great, but was thinking having the targets that drop down i.e. Tron would have been great to see as a possibility. Either way I'm extremely happy and can't wait for tuture updates.......Hope my wife pics the LE over the Smaug.

I'm pretty sure they were metal with decals on them, not plastic.

They could have been made of Platinum, and they'd still be ugly.

I think since its the treasure room, I prefer Smaug being revealed out of a pile of gold than behind a mountain door.

I'm wondering what they are going to do with the bezel around the lcd, I think it would look a lot better if it were thinner and some kind of engraved look. Right now I think it's way to fat in proportion to the lcd, but I think I read somewhere that it is just a place holder until a permanent design is made.

Are they doing anything to address the third flipper or do they have future plans to do so? Playing at the expo it felt pretty useless and didn't have any distinct shots that the bottom flippers could not make. Seems like an afterthought put on the machine just so it has 3 flippers.

I also waiting a gate of erebor behind the smaug

I mean, it is a Smaug version, I would expect him to play a large role in the artwork.

Ok, let me rephrase the question. Does Smaug rotate such that in one position is revealed and in another position is hidden? Or was the rotating done away with in the latest version?

lol, right, I'm in the minority there. No problem.

I would say its totally appropriate and extra awesome for the Smaug SE. Unfortunately for me and "3" other guys it's for all the versions. Here is what I want for my LE. I know, its so drab and boring isn't it? I almost fell asleep posting this.

colors.png

I liked the idea of hitting targets to flip the pages of the book. I wonder how they are going to implement mode selection now.

The same thing was done in WOZ and I use the third flipper all the time even though most of the shots can be made with the lower flippers.

It is also necessary for the skill shots and melting the witch.

Matt your changes look amazing! Thanks for what you are doing to improve the pin! Looks like this is going to be a KILLER game! Thanks Jack for listening to your customers!

After looking at the pillar pictures again, I really hope they paint them to give that same "marbled-green" color effect like they appear in the movie. That would look really nice. There's even little small piles of gold already sculpted onto them. Nice touch & great attention to detail. Cant wait to see Smaug with a tongue, teeth & lit yellow eyes

smaug pillars.jpg

It's not the same as WOZ since you are saying the 3rd flipper is necessary for certain shots on that game. There is a big difference between designing shots for a third flipper or just putting one on the machine to have one. Doesn't mean you can't use the third flipper but not having any specific shots still makes it seem like an afterthought IMO.

I agree the coins on the pillers adds a real nice touch, the pillers should definitely be grey or dark colored.

how about a recessed start button. I often inadvertently start multiplayer games on woz.

I really appreciate the latest round of improvements, very cool all around!

What I mean is that the third flipper is made necessary in WOZ by the software, not the playfield layout.

The same can be done for he Hobbit.

On the Hobbit, it looks like the left outlane "load arrow" kicker will send the ball to the upper flipper which then will take a shot at the dragon.

I think the lighting in the eyes should be orange or red

Quick question on the eye lighting - is that going to be the whole eye (or just the iris?)