At first I wasn't completely sold on the Hobbit, but a few things have swayed me from interested but not excited to "I absolutely must have this."

First off, the playfield art change is amazing. I flat out did not like the first version. The Smaug version I love. This swayed me big time.

The continuing good reviews of WOZ, the depth of the rule-set that was put into it, the "spared no expense" quality of the game has me excited for an equally top-of-the-line Hobbit to follow it up. A deep (to the point of near impossibility) rule-set is really attractive to me. Killing Smaug should be for only an experienced and skilled pinballer, and a goal to strive for that takes a long time to experience, let alone master.

At first the earthy-toned cabinet etc. seemed pretty low-key to me - almost to the point of boring. But seeing it in pictures in a row with other pins, it actually ends up having its own unique look that IMO looks great.

Medieval Madness troll clones? Now you're talking! This is one of the best reasons to go for a MM... because the trolls are hands down one of the coolest things in pinball. Now that they're incorporated into The Hobbit, I feel less like I'm missing out if I don't get MM to get The Hobbit instead.

Releasing alongside the third movie guarantees that the theme will be in people's minds at the time you put your Hobbit pinball machine on location.

All in all... I'm getting really excited for this! If they deliver the real deal with this pin (which I have absolute confidence they will. Nothing Peter Jackson related is ALLOWED to be less than epic, and it seems Jersey Jack is the same way) I think it might be "the one" for me, as a Tolkien and Hobbit fan already. And MM is my favourite pin of all time! How did JJ make me want something else even more?!?

And the LCD screen! Such an advantage over the DMD.

Keep up the good work guys, and I hope everything goes great with the launch.

Creating a new account to flame sounds like somebody has a horse in the race and wants to hurt the competition. If this were a genuine opinion you could have wrote it with your own account. Fairly sure most people will disregard your opinion in favor of something more sincere.

Must...smash...trolls...

On the contrary, let the flights of fancy begin!

Maybe they will double as trolls and multiball locks.
Subway ramps to Smaug's treasure?
Revolver-style rotator under the playfield that allows multiple different miniatures to pop up (goblin, orc, etc.) or multiple functions (troll vs. subway ramp vs. multiball lock)
Gumball mech that drops your ball and pops one out somewhere else!

That would be good enough for me.

Didn't want to just say "I agree" cause there is a thumbs up button for that. More specifically I love flow games but I think the industry needs to be conscious of becoming too homogenized.

However, I don't think we are in too much danger of a long term rash of cookie cutter designs. Trends come and go in game design, but in the end all designers want something unique about their game and I think with the current state of pinball we will see no shortage of innovation. People will try new things a few times a year. The popularity of those games that take risks will drive the future styles of production.

That white orc looks awful haha. Rest of the pop ups look fine to me though. I can't wait to bash them.

The way I see this game is that you are in a battle. That's why all the drop targets and pop-ups - you are trying to strike things as though you're in combat. The pinball is your sling, and you are trying to slay goliath (Smaug). Smash smash! Also, keeping in mind the pin is going to incorporate all three movies. So logically, first you might have to gather the dwarves, get to the mountain and wake Smaug. The eye in the treasure pile might be the end of that quest line. Then you will have to get the arkenstone, soak smaug in molten gold and flee the mountain. Third movie is a war and you have to battle Smaug to the death. There will probably be a wizard mode involved in at least one of these. I would also not be surprised if there was both a gold and a red smaug involved.

So you can imagine the complexity that will have to be involved in this machine. Peter Jackson is a man with an epic vision. So is Jersey Jack. I think we all need to assume there is more than meets the eye here.

This is just a guess and maybe over-thinking the pin. But if your opinion is that the final product is going to be slapped together and a poor quality finished product, you should consider that you are probably missing something.

They should just get the machine out and sell replacement Smaugs and pop-ups as mods some time in the future.

Yeah this thread was epically derailed.

a) the barrel escape was actually one of the few parts of the movie that was in the book also.
b) if you are annoyed because a movie filled with dwarves elves and hobbits fighting a dragon has an over the top barrel escape, you are the problem. Not the movie.

Part of the reason this thread is filled with tons of nitpicks is from people who focus on one small detail that may bother them but the vast majority of people has no problem with. Just bogging down production.

I'm not sure it has cost the production time-line that much. In the end, if the game is tempered by fire and the end product is ultimately better, it will sell more pins. Period. The cancellations of the pre-order is not a result of the criticisms, but a lack of confidence in the early product. That product, as a result of the intense scrutiny, has improved to a point of winning some of those people back.

Jack did his job by exposing his product to the pinside community to critique.
Pinside did their job in relentlessly demanding perfection.
In the end the product is a winner and Jack's reputation for making quality pins endures. He not only has strong sales for the Hobbit, but builds even more confidence (and pre-orders) for his next game.

It is a symbiotic relationship.

Most people recognize what Jack has done and continues to do pushing pinball forward. He takes chances, he makes quality pins. If Jack couldn't handle the heat, he wouldn't be in the kitchen.

This game is looking like it's gonna rock. Good job so far JJP, very excited to see this in action.

I think it's probably the deep code, they don't want to ship it incomplete.

Don't mods normally thread eject people for entire pages of back and forth bickering?

Great looking pin, had faith in JJP and it looks like they are delivering quality once again. Way to go, JJP!