They're both great themes. There is no head-to-head battle that I'm aware of.

I disagree with your premise.

I vote for the hobbit, I imagined playing it and it was soooooooo freaking sweet. I literally blew my load just launching from the shooter lane.

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You leaning on the machine too hard when the shaker motor goes off again?

whats that Cflank? You use the shooter lane to measure girth?

Ive got an awesome new mod called "nut rumblers" and they tie into the shaker wiring.

LOTRs is more than ten years old. Great game (I would love to own one), but I think the hobbit is going to be compared to whatever Sterns late year release is this year.

The Hobbit Vs Fishtails is going to be the future comparison.

.....Ramp shooters logic.

Lets compare Mustang LE vrs. Slugger.

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Is that thing HUO? You should powdercoat the trim and put in a few mods.

LOTR FTW

mostly my thoughts are skewed due to TH not being playable yet.

wcbrandes..... we must have very different shooter lanes.

I just woke up about 15 minutes ago and imagined hearing the boat engine sounds as I hit ramp shots on The Hobbit :p thanks! haha

I'll trade you a #7 for a #23 any day of the week. In other words, the ratings are kind of meaningless. And I don't think Jack would lose any sleep over a #20 rating on TH.

Unbelievable !! One of our all time most epic , stupid threads!

This has nothing to do with Stern vs JJP. The only comparison you could make is between George Gomez and the guys designing Hobbit.
.... in the end will be 2 completelly different machines, impossible to compare.

This is the first of 6 threads. Wait for the 30 post ending. It will wrap everything up perfectly.

LOTR is #7 on the Pinside rankings and WOZ is #17, taken from Pinsiders' reviews - almost all of which have some sort of agenda (and I own both as well as a Hobbit preorder, so I can talk about both sides of the argument). It will be a victory for PINBALL if TH is an awesome machine because it will get even more people into the hobby like WOZ did, along with all the great machines Stern is producing as well. It shouldn't be about competition anymore...only about the betterment of pinball. I'd like to see Spooky and JPop get their machines out there as well. More ideas, more pinball machines, more competition, and everybody involved in this hobby wins. It may even force the ridiculous prices to come down, too!

were metric in this Vancouver! We appear to be larger up here!

Russell, all of your presumptions and assumptions are absolutely idiotic. Participating in such psychobabble is futile.

Furthermore, I honestly believe that the more that you believe in the "lists of good pinballs" (top 100 on Pinside for example), the more of a lemming you become. Believing strongly in "lists" makes it much harder to form unique opinions of games and folks just get in line for the next hyped up title. The lists also promote bad behavior when people rate games much higher (or lower) than they should. I could go on and on about why I don't support these types of lists, but that is a little off topic.

Rules are for the most part what matters these days, and given both have Keefer doing them, and given the PF layout is a little more amicable for most over some of the issue with the woz PF, they will both likely be greats.

However, at this time, LOTR is the only proven winner.

7th for LOTR is too low. Amazing that the machine it's built off of, MB, with no where near the rules, still hovers where it does.

i think your too much into the numbers game. which means, pretty much zilch, with this hobby being extremely subjective in terms of preferences.

Jersey Jack could care less about Pinside rankings. You suggested that they care in the first post and that rankings actually mean something when a company decides what titles to develop and design. That is just crazy talk.

The OP is in Colorado. He's operating on a different level.

In a battle where there can be no winners, WHO WILL WIN!?

Its a gamble, like developing any pin, but I think its going to pay off big for JJP. Why? One of the main reasons, many would say the #1 reason, why LOTR is such an amazing pin is because of Keith Johnson's work on the code. JJP has Keith Johnson on their staff and working on the code for TH. When you factor in not only Keith working on the code but Ted Estes as well ,who has coded for many top games, its likely that the game will be amazing as great code work is one factor in making a great pinball machine.

The LOTR movies are superior. Odds are the same will be the case with the pin, although I would love to be proven wrong.

LOTR is better. But it's kind of one sided comparing a game that does exist to one that doesn't.

I imagine quite a few people will buy a Hobbit to place beside their LOTR. (I will.) In that way, the existence of LOTR will create sales for TH, not the reverse.

How is the Hobbit a sequel?

It's still flawed. This "head-to-head" battle you are describing is just a figment of your imagination.

The victory for Stern was keeping LOTR in production or 7 or 8 years and making ~7000 or so machines. Whatever Hobbit ends up as is irrelevant to what Stern did with LOTR, as that chapter in pinball history is over. If Hobbit is cool and sells a lot, that will be a victory for JJP....from a business perspective, there's no competition here as LOTR is no longer in production.

First off I own a STERN LOTR LE. Russell with this statement and observation makes an excellent point. I kicked around the idea of preordering The Hobbit . But in the end it seems the Hobbit films are close and familiar to the LOTR films. In fact I was bummed when I heard that JJP had picked The Hobbit theme. I have no idea what music or voice overs will be used in the production of The Hobbit pinball. But the likely hood of similarities between the two films as pointed out by Russell is why I did not preorder JJP The Hobbit pinball machine. Only time will tell. And I hope I was mistaken by the similarities in theme ,actors, setting, music and characters.

They're using a band called Two Steps from Hell for the music, so I think the assumption is that it won't have any movie score...or maybe their interpretation of the score along w/ original music. So - I don't think the games will sound similar. Even if they did use similar music themes, JJP's audio is lightyears ahead of ahead of Whitestar. Plus it's a widebody, LOTR is standard. Keith's doing the rules, so I imagine he's not going to want to clone his previous work but make something that's just as cool. Forget the Stern vs. JJP thing - from a collector/player perspective it will probably be a fantastic companion to LOTR.

Apples and oranges....
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Jack said it might have one or two songs from the movie, but for the most part it will be original compositions.

This man is wise; you should listen to him. Well, at least in this case.

lets hope the two songs are the songs from the trolls or goblin king. It it will be a shitfest.

Glad I wasn't drinking when I read this. Made me smile. Thanks Keith.

Not a big fan of either series, but great theme for pinball machines. I enjoyed LOTR way more than I though I would even with the crap main music, can only hope that TH is as good or better, I think it will be awesome.

Oh crap, we might have to give Rarehero a sedative to bring him down from the ego boost.

vs? Pinball machines compete against each other? I once nudged my bsd into my jackbot, does that count as a vs. battle?

Did you guys hear about Stern taking on Williams? Mustang vs. Corvette. Should be an epic "head-to-head" battle. Very courageous on Stern's part.

I guess I shouldn't mention I laughed pretty heartily at FG last night either, then.

Aw, thanks man....AV Club gave it a C- lol....glad someone liked it

A ten year old game ranked #7 says something the new games get a lot of love but over time it fades check the rankings when TH is ten.