After seeing what the studio rejected in the animation department, I can now realize the pita JJP must have had when developing this pin alltogether...
Seems like every great idea they had for mending the Hobbit theme with a pinball game got turned down by some whacky IP defendor in the name of the studio.

Ok, JJP - that was way more than possibly everyone expected and I'm officially full blown away.

The new playfield art (really like the red "arrows") together with the new apron and the plastics/decals look superb.
The wireform vuks, the changed BagEnd and moved book position also give the player a better view on this game, it's just great to see that much now.

I was also too harsh on the ramps - with decals and etching they don't look so alien anymore and go very well with the game, I like it.

From the current available pictures I only think that the gold-gold Smaug does not look that great.
Almost too much gold and no real contrast make it so...inconspicuous.

Btw. can we get the reason on the closing of the entrance to the shooter lane from beorn outlane?
Must be a gameplay reason as it seemed to be a cool feature and nobody minded it...

Damn, the new Smaug Gold looks great.
I'm just happy that I did not act prematurely this time and nagged Jen about changing my order to SE with red Smaug, cause I didn't like complete golden one that was shown on IAAPA eralier this week

There was a rumor about this, but I never made sense to me.

How should they be able to deliver a machine that incorporates stuff from all three (3!) movies, when the studio does not let them access any assets from the third one, before it has hit the cinemas?

Whats that black round object below Bilbos feet (center drain)?

Isn't that how it's supposed to be?
I almost wet my pants when I hear the knocker of modern Stern machines, but not because of it's loudness.....