That doesn’t seem right. My game has stock flippers and I don’t notice any difference shooting at the ball being held in the ring.

Finally straightened out that leaning heroine addict Saruman, he is upright on his feet once again and added a mini map of Middle Earth which isn’t quite finished yet.

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Looks great, did you goto GI's, Insert or 12v steady source? Enjoy!!!

I really like that, hate the way my saruman's falling over - only just got gandalf up straight. Also wanted to do something with that blank plastic - map is a good idea.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think the magnet being on has anything to do with the flippers getting weak, not sure why you think that. The flippers get weak because they get hot, this heat changes the resistance of the wire, and they get weaker.

Does anyone else feel just a little let down nothing happens when hitting the last ring shot in There And Back Again? I mean, destroy the ring and the game goes crazy. Only complaint I can come up with so far in the six months I’ve had it. Well, that and ROTK is keeping me from getting close to Valinor, think I’ve only had one, possibly two games in which I’ve completed all three MB’s.

connected to GI.

Well that's what I expected as well but I've never had a weak flipper (or weaker than they were) before the next shot after the first time locking the ball in the magnet. Have played this machine loads and for hours in the past, and used to have it on location as well. Just too much of a coincidence, maybe it's a combination of both things and having pretty weak flippers in the first place. Could be something else - a few games later the wire broke loose of the right flipper.

Anyhow, I rebuilt the flippers, switched the coils and added EOSs (which looked like they had been removed by the previous owner). I'm not switching back - it's much faster but not too fast I don't think. Maybe I fear a bit for poor old balrog as he seems to suffer for every bricked shot. Much better. The legolas ramp is lightning quick but not had any balls fly off yet. If something is going to break first, it's near Sauron's tower, that thing flies round pippin. And making the ring now is as easy as just pressing the flipper button. Also, its got to be a good thing to speed things up as all the modes are timed. 8/10

I put one in my LOTR also today. No more side to side of the EYE.

Yep, tossed one of the those metal ones in my LOTR two days ago and the target hasn't budged since.

In case anyone doesn't know what a 200 play lotr looks like, this is the beauty I mentioned I had picked up. super excited, just waiting on cliffies. The game didn't have the tilt Bob installed and the weak post at the ring wasn't even bent yet. No flipper button wear or shooter wear, so planning on keeping it that way

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Beautiful it’s exactly like mine with 541 plays. Is it a 2004 run machine? The PF colors look identical to mine and did it come with ver 8 roms?

My Gandalf was the same too, that had to go lol.

Nice score on this one

I've never understood this 200 plays from new thing. If I had unboxed a pin it would have that many in a week.

I agree, seems crazy. I found my current LOTR in late 2018. The owner was active in pinball mostly in 2004-2005. He bought nib LOTR, TSPP, Ripley’s and a couple others. He opened them, and then played a few games every month or two. Eventually, he ignored them. LOTR had 124 plays, Ripley’s had 58. He’s a super nice guy. Sold me LOTR to finance a Hobbit, but refused to part with Ripley’s or TSPP, and I tried! I put more than 124 plays on it the first year I owned it.

I definitely put that many on mine the first week I had it!

I put an nvram into mine 4 months after I purchased it. It came with fresh batteries so a reset counter. Checked the stats before I reset it and it had just over 1000 plays in that time. If you’re going to have it, may as well enjoy it. I do have three kids that play it as well.

Do you really think the batteries had never been swapped in that time? That’s fourteen years!

Question reference the ring magnet. Has anyone experienced the ball falling forward instead of being pulled back through the magnet? Lately, 9 out of 10 balls that are shot into the ring fall forward instead of going backward through the wire ramp. Is this an adjustment of the magnet or switch, or could the magnet have lost power? Any insights?

But if you swap the batteries with the power on (like most people) then you don't lose any of the information.

I have put less than 3k games on my HUO game in the 12 years that I have owned mine (and it had less than 1k games on it when I got it). I did lose my audits recently as I upgraded the ROM to include a shaker motor.

I own 11 pins and my machines combined get around 2k games per year so that would average about 200 games per pin per year. That isn't unusual for games from collectors with medium sized colelctions.

What’s your best scoring strategy on LOTR? Besides just getting as far as you can through the game, where are the best spots to maximize points?

I can't work out when the machine decides to drop it or pull it back, there must be a pattern. Sometimes it just drops it by mistake, but the drop function is a legitimate operation as it's in the Ring tests in the service menu. It does seem to drop the ball when you shoot the ring when it is not lit "i see you!" but also sometimes drops the ball on mode starts.

make sure you allow the magnet the best chance to catch the ball (and keep it) - the back panel can come loose, and even just screwing in further the ramp out of mount doom tightens it a bit, and there is threaded hardware in 2 large plates which hold the panel to the bottom of the playfield - mine had fallen out on one side.

What seems to work best for me is no drinking.

I’m curious too with this question, I try to always have a mode running through multiballs to collect points for both at the same time. If possible I try bring 2X scoring into There and Back Again, or Gollum can work too.

I assume he changed them, with the power on. But, I’ve seen pins with batteries older than 10 years that hadn’t gone bad. His pins were definitely mint, with no evidence of any play. A funny side story, I just bought a Simpson’s toy for my TSPP from 2003 off EBay. It was still new, inside a sealed box. I opened it and pushed the button and Moe talked! Scared the crap out of me. I was sure the batteries were dead. It had 2 or 3 AA, regular alkaline batteries. 17 years in a box and worked fine. Weird! Others I’ve seen green and leaking after 3-4 years. Who knows.

My LOTR still had the factory batteries in it when I bought it. The prior owner bought it from an operator and had it for about 14 years. He had no idea how to even open the backbox or remove the playfield glass. The zip tie was still on the batteries from the factory. They had not leaked in all that time.

Just picked up a LOTR that had been routed a few years ago. Some good things, some not so good. Has color dmd, path of the dead mod, needs a shop job, some guy spray painted the wireforms gold. Any thoughts suggestions, recommendations before i get started?

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Is it normal for the balrog to make a bit of a squeaky "whirring" sound when it opens and closes? I've noticed it may be a bit loose? Anything I can do to tighten it up/check without removing the entire thing?

Also, during Ents mode, when I shoot the ball around the right orbit, it almost always passes over the pin there and continues around the orbit instead of dropping into POTD. How can I fix that?

Thanks

Also having same issue with Balrog but nobody seemed to have any input still interested.

I know on Monster Bash Drac would start to slow up and make noise, so we took the gear box apart and re greased it up. Wonder if anyone has done this with Balrog

i want to run this by you all. Gimili switch is not registering on the switch test. i checked the connections and discover there was no diode on the switch. I looked around just below the switch and found a broken off diode. I grabbed a fresh diode and soldered onto the switch and rechecked. Still the switch did not register. So i started to remove the switch to put a new one in. Holy crap!!! Has anyone replaced this switch. Im thinking i am going to have to take off the entire Upkick bracket to get the switch out of there. what a pain in the rear. Anyone??? Am i right or is there a trick to this.

here us a pic of the bad boy.

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so these five and the whole thing drops out

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When my Gimili stopped working I replaced it with another forked mini-VUK, and after a couple day that stopped again, so I replaced it with a 180-5209-00 mini VUK switch and its hasn't missed a hit yet. Slightly bend the switch blade and your good to go.

LOTR didnt come with all switches connected. Any help identifying where these go would be greatly appreciated

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There is a thread (or part of a thread) on this somewhere. I have the same problem, there are two options.

If your loop diverter post behind orthanc has space between it and the ball guide, you can put a metal sleeve on to the post to make it wider and catch the right loop shot.

Or if, like mine, the post is very close to the guide you can put some washers into the fixing on the bottom of the playfield for the diverter post to angle it inwards, thereby catching the ball.

I had the same problem. Took the five screws out and found that it was the lever of the microswitch that had come loose and it would not depress the switch correctly. I tighten the little screws that hold the micro switch to the assembly and that centered and tighten the lever. It now works great. a five minute operation well worth it.

Hmm...didnt even think about that. I checked electrical connections. and when that didnt produce results just replaced the whole thing. Didnt know it could be a mechanical thing. Like in the 70s when you could smack the television to get a channel to come in better.

this looks like the switch at the top of gimilis vuk

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All you have to do is look at the color of the 2 switch wires, then locate the switch that uses those colors on the switch matrix.
For example if your connector contains a White wire with an Orange stripe and a Green wire with a Blue stripe, it would go to switch 43 (Left Top Lane).
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If you are still unsure of the location, you can fine the switch number on the playfild switch locator shown below.
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One of the connectors you show has red and yellow wires, this is not a switch connector at all, its a lamp connector and you dont want to put this in the wrong spot. It should be fairly easy to find out which lamp isnt working, or you can look it up in the lamp matrix using the exact same process as the switch matrix.

Give a man a fish. Im a little embarrassed I never new how that column thing worked. I just always brut forced it. You're the man Pin Guy.

So I fixed the Legolas fly aways with the typical piece of plexiglass over the rail. But I noticed that the shire backglass had a crack. So I ran a piece of plexiglass inside the VUK. The plexi is thin enough that it does not interfere with the upkick. The shire still takes an occasional stray air ball from the palantir so we will see if this solves my problem. You can see the extra plexi from the front of the shire but you have to be looking for it. The picture is zoomed and at the worst angle.

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Got it all back together! Thanks chief. Still needs a lot, especially a flipper rebuild, but everythings connected. Thank you again!

Thanks for the reminder that I still need to protect mine. My vertical shire plastic already has a crack at the bottom rivet. The rest of my pin is protected except for that plastic.

I found this thread as well on it ->
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/need-advice-on-protecting-lotr

Though what did you use to attach it to the metal? The other pin says to use Velcro but I would assume Velcro is too thick and pushes the plastic near the VUK.

Edit: My current idea...is that since the bottom rivet plastic is already broken, I go ahead and remove the rivet and then use a nut/bolt to resecure the broken plastic and also secure the plexi/lexan protector....

I used a tiny bit of clear silicon at the bottom of metal vuk. (There is actually a slight ledge that I nestled the plexi into.) And a dab of UV activated glue at the very top. Not enough to give me any trouble if I want to remove, but just enough to keep it in place. I've played about 5 games so far and it has done a great job of protecting the shire from further harm. I was tempted to do the nut and bolt as well but my shire has a good crack and I did not want to to take any chance of the piece breaking altogether and then falling out. Plus the nut on the back bolt might interfere with the upkick.

Anyone have or know where to find an extra #07 plastic? The one that holds the Uruk holding the head? (Back right corner of the machine by the tilting tower) My machine didn't come with either of them. I found an Uruk online but can't find anything but complete plastic sets.
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Reckon I have a spare...you need just the plastic?

I think.... probably the figure holder that goes on top as well, although I think I saw that Pinbits sells replacement figure holders. I'll send you a DM.

I took out the two screws and put in metal posts with SB post rubber to hold the plastic from moving forward from a ball hit.

See post 3469 for a picture.

I wish I would have thought of doing that before my plastic was cracked.