As long as the gameplay is great, who cares for how detailed or movie-prop-like the toys are? But warg and spider are close enough to the real thing, actually I think they're awesome!
Orc and the feral cat (?) ... not so much. It's not that I miss details, the heads just don't really match their movie versions. After the reveal of the warg and the barrels I expected something different.

Smaug might bear closer resemblance but I don't think it'll be that important in the end. In any case, the visual appeal (or supposed lack thereof) of single components won't "make or break the deal". It might still work very well (visually) when everything is put together.

Sorry to disappoint but it will go to Germany.

Looks a lot better now! I was wrong, I am seeing a lot of effort going into those changes.

I always liked the old playfield art but I get it. The new one has more colour and action and it will definitely draw more players to the game than the old one. The colums are a great addition even now with that strange brownish look (they're probably gonna change the colour, right?). The gold pieces have the right size and and of course the wireframes over the VUKs were the right way to go. There are gonna be decals along the side of the pin I suppose and once the ramp gates with lighting are installed the writing on the ramps might look better, too. (Not sure why they didn't put symbols on there. Hour glass or book, padlock and some runes would be the obvious design choice).

Still problematic: Smaug. With the mountain gone the 180 spin is gone. So why not scrap the svivelling mechanism altogether? It seems unnecessary. The sideways motion doesn't add much over a static head sculpt (aside from costs and weight, obviously).
But then again, I get it. Only the talking seems not to be enough for this toy. Everyone - including Jack - wants Smaug to do more than that. After all, this is a (the?) main feature of the game. And with the "tail" diverter gone there is even less left of the original concept. So of course they will keep the sideways movement. It's a bit lame, but what else can you do.
Of course, if Smaug didn't have to be designed to spin in the first place there'd be a good chance they could have fit a (partial) body sculpt in that area (looking like Smaug coming out of his cave or sleeping and rising up or something like that) instead of a chopped off head. Well, too late for that now.
The Smaug concept is broken. The original idea didn't work out and what's going to be in the game is not what anybody wanted, it's what JJP is stuck with. It's not particularly awful but it's not great either. It's another toy, nothing special.

The book. Who cares? I don't see the need for another display when you're using a huge screen but whatever. If you want to have a book in your game it makes sense to do it this way because you're gonna be able to actually turn pages. But at it's current position it's blocking the view on the barrel underneith, that's just weird. I guess the barrel needs to go. But even then the book doesn't integrate well with the rest of the table.

A lot of things changed which make me think TH is gonna be ok but I am still not impressed. The theme is great but what I see on the table is not all that exciting.

It's a different feel when you make a target drop instead of switching on a light. The way it's done on TH it'll be more satisfying to hit.
Also moving the target seems more interesting with the drops. Having a blinking light move from stand up to stand up would work, but isn't it more appealing to have the active target pop up and the incatives drop?

You are right though, you can do the same things with stand ups + lights you can do with drop targets. If it's both the same to you the only places on TH it's gotta be drops is in front of the Smaug VUK shot.

Edit: I want to add, I don't have much love for the target overkill. But the drop target/stand-up target combination clearly is the better one of two design choices. Gotta have at least SOME physical response from the "toys" in the game.

Then why is the ball returned through the left loop??

Not just the Smaug area, the whole PF. Not saying it hasn't improved but it's still far from a masterpiece. Gameplay might as well be the best thing since slice bread, the art direction though is all over the place.

People demanding mods after taking one look at that prototype says it all. Not that what's been suggested is realistic (Smaug body...) but it's a pretty good indicator of just how underwhelming the visual presentation of TH really is.

With TH you get a seemingly random mix of pieces and a LCD showing scenes from the movies, telling you you're in middle earth. When you stand in front of LOTR you just feel it. Huge difference! I think Jack has to step up his game.