Thanks for the explanation, I'd heard about Mylar but always assumed it was applied on a larger area, not to mention that the cut has a "shape"

Weeks back I questioned on here regarding just how many shots does Legolas ramp take?? Well I found out the real answer- it depends on how often the wire on your Legolas switch makes contact! Haha. Depending on vibrations, I may or may not get credit for it

20210920_211350 (resized).jpg

A few years ago I was messing around with post light LEDs to light up the figures on the Path of the Dead. Got a dc bump up converter to get them up to 12v. Wanted to tie them in to flash with the corresponding number green led. Had a hard time mounting them on the plastic and figuring out how to run the wires without it looking messy. Got frustrating and gave up.
Still have everything sitting in a box and still want to do something with the Path of the Dead mod and can't seem to find anyone who is making them anymore.

IMG_20180511_000533.jpg

IMG_20180517_210707.jpg

IMG_20180517_235108.jpg

rs=w_600,h_600.jpg

I'm considering trading my LOTR and some cash for a Hobbit. The prices for JJP seem to be sky rocketing and LOTR seems to have hit a plateau. LOTR is my first pin, anyone think it's a bad decision?

I think comet makes 5v post lights that are sleeker, or just a single bulb or 5mm led are options,I made a thread on how I did mine,don't give up,let me know if you have any questions

I have been telling myself lifes too short to keep them all. I recently moved along my TZ and TAF after owning for 5 years, and replaced them with others I wanted. No regrets there.

There are mixed opinions on Hobbit, but if you enjoy it, go for it.

At the end of the day, to each their own. On one hand, I believe that almost no game is a real keeper, and eventually almost all games go and get either traded or sold and new machines come to fill that space.

I've owned The Hobbit a few years back. It was a fun game, but didn't nearly get the play that Lord of the rings gets. Then again, that's just my personal experience, and maybe very different in someone else's home / collection.

Lord the rings pinball to me seems very much more of an experience compared to the Hobbit, which in my opinion, fell a little flat in terms of immersion. Again, strictly my opinion, and that may not match the opinion of others.

Was the Hobbit a beautiful game, absolutely...and built like a tank, by far the heaviest pin I ever owned.

There are some people that have issues with both games, mechanically speaking. I was fortunate that I did not have a hard time working on any of the Hobbit mechs, though I know there are many who have and it is so jam-packed under that playfield, that I've heard that it can get really tough at times to get where you need to go, although anything and everything is possible when it comes down to repair, you would figure it out.

If you're looking for a vote, I would say my first sentence...to each their own.
Although, if I was personally asked today, would I trade my Lord of the rings for a Hobbit, If I'm being absolutely honest, I would probably play with the idea in my mind a little while, I'd think about the pros and cons, ogle at the pretty pictures, etc, but would probably ultimately say no.
For me, and strictly this is just my opinion, if I felt that my time with the Lord of the rings game was over, I would probably have my sights set for a completely different themed game because for me, I would play that Hobbit and wonder why it didn't feel as personal of a Tolkien experience as the Lord of the rings...and that would probably drive me nuts.

Since you asked for opinions, LOTR is a better pin. Hobbit is fun to knock around a bit but targeting all the drops get old pretty quick.

Depends on your skill level as well. Did you ever get to Valinor? If not then you will probably never see everything on Hobbit. Curiously enough I had LOTR 12 years ago and at that time I couldn't beat it. Came close a few times but that's it. My skill level has dramatically improved. Got it about 6 weeks ago and already did Valinor twice. I find it kind of easy now.

Games are way deeper now on average.

I traded Stranger Things LE to get LOTR (and got cash too of course) and don't regret it at all. LOTR is so well integrated with the movies the immersion is amazing. I don't think Hobbit is at the same level. Way more complex game though. It's a matter of personal preference as others have mentioned.

In general I like JJP games. I don't like Hobbit. My vote is no, don't do it. If you want Hobbit later you can find it. LOTR is getting harder to find since most owners don't want to part with it.

I gave up a while ago. If you have a thread on how you did it shoot me a link.

To each their own, but no way would I ever let LOTR go for Hobbit, or probably any other game for that matter.

I had a Hobbit, and after 2 months, I was done with it. There is just too much going on, and it feels very disjointed. It's sort of lackluster to shoot, and although I love MBs, there are just too many in this game.

Needless to say, I let it go, and never regretted it.

This is not a knock on JJP. I just acquired another Dialed In (owned one in the past) and couldn't be happier. People who can't wrap their heads around the theme are missing out on one of the best games every made.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I haven't hit Valinor on my LOTR yet, I was consistently hitting 100 mil with standard scoring before my kid came along, and I wasn't really setting out to get to the wizard mode because I didn't think I was good enough yet. Once I dig back into it and get back in the groove I'll probably start going for Valinor.

I think I'm gonna hold off on the Hobbit for now, and just eat the price increase down the line. I haven't really modded my LOTR at all and out of all the machines it feels like this one has a ton of options, so I'm gonna just put some money into this machine for now. Speaking of which, my cab is dinged up, do they make radcals for LOTR?

Yep....Dialed in really is JJP's sleeper hit. 3 of us in our pinball group now have one and rank it as one of our favorites.

I owned an LE when it first came out, and the only reason I sold it was that I was fairly new to the hobby and wanted to try new games out.

It's one of the only games I've sold and missed enough to want to get it back, and now that I have it, I'm enjoying it immensely.

I'll never understand the people that get caught on theme and artwork. LOTR artwork is nothing to write home about, yet, it's one of the greatest games of all time. And loads of games out there have themes that are a dream for me (TMNT, GOT, etc) but the games themselves are dog shit.

I play pinball because I like... Pinball! If it happens to have a theme a like, double plus good! If not, I'll enjoy it just the same!

I did the same thing. I bought a DILE in 2018 and loved it. It’s a beautiful pin, one of the best looking ever, for me. The theme is what confused people early on, but it’s really another disaster game. I think Lawlor wanted to be clever with the double meaning of “dialed in,” (dialing in a pinball machine and a reference to the smart phone which is a key toy in the game) and it puzzled some people. But I agree it’s a fantastic game, with lots of things to do and exceptional shot geometry and flow. I sold my first one too quickly and 2 years later I bought another DILE nib. This time it stuck around a year and I played it more. I sold it again, but I’ll probably own one again someday. My first pin I ever bought was WOZ, which is still my pick for best art package overall, but DI is JJP’s best game so far imho, except maybe POTC, which I haven’t owned or played enough to judge. I’ll never sell my LOTR. It’s still my vote for Stern’s best pin yet.

I indeed love my Dialed In. The one gripe I have is... the music... God the music... Theme is alright (under rated in my opinion, it's actually well thought out), but the music is downright awful... It would benefit from a major overhaul. On top of that, the rythm of the music is such that it gets in your head and you just can't get it out...

I wish there was a Pinball Browser version for DialedIn frankly, so we could swap musics

That's how I feel about Wonka. The art is whatever, and the theme does nothing for me, but that game is one of my favorites because it shoots so good.

Not sure that this has been mentioned, but I just got a new topper today! (Nah, just kidding! I'll keep the light up Balrog up there!)

Marco is now selling these and I was surprised to see it. Got it for posterity, I guess...

IMG_2135 (resized).JPG

I wonder what the special prize was?

I would be interested to find out as well. Also as another Pinsider just said to me he can't imagine Chuck E. having pinballs for many years now.

Looks like Marco has similar toppers for TSPP and Stern PotC "win bonus tickets".

Also found an old thread talking about location pins disappearing from C.E.C. 9yrs ago.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-disappearing-from-chuck-e-cheeses

Good find! Just checked again and they also have Shrek.

I just thought about this and I should buy all of them. I can wait a couple of years and sell them for $4000 each!

Looking at these on the site right now... Do these come with mountning hardware?

If anyone knows anybody on the east coast that might be looking to join the club, I'm gong to be listing my HUO (2nd owner) July 2004 LOTR with just about 800 plays in total on it for sale shortly. The game is also tastefully heavily modded. Listing coming soon, making room for Godzilla and we just don't play LOTR much any longer.

It finally happened!

D7EF951A-2137-4D40-809D-0777C5B427DE (resized).jpeg

Finally joined the group yesterday with an all original HUO LOTR. What are the must have mods and what are the ones to avoid?

109D2913-617C-4C2A-8645-615C21E4CA2C (resized).jpeg

Palantir mod and Path of the Dead are two of my favorites. Hoping to get a colordmd soonish.

Color DMD and LED ocd are popular. I like the Sting shooter rod. It comes down to person taste.

On mine the LEDs looked like shit so I re-converted to incandescent. Looks way better. I have LED OCD in some Wms games but haven't tried their Stern Whitestar model yet so can't comment on that.

What about LEDs in just the inserts?

Color DMD, Pinsound with movie soundtrack, planatir, eye of sauron, Orthanc, side art would be the first things I would do if I picked up a un-modded one.

Led Ocd a must with led in the inserts.

For sure it is all on personal taste, I enjoy incandescents throughout (including at the inserts) on my machine. There is a somewhat interesting warm glow that comes from this game when there are incandescents throughout that I really enjoy. I use regular non-colored bulbs throughout, but do use green glass incandescents at the path of the dead and a larger red glass incandescent flasher at the right ramp.

There is a nice sticker decal for the Shire there on the left which I think visually adds a lot. There is some cliffy sets out there that are worth considering. There are some variations of sword mods for the right ramp that you can look at and look nice. There's a few places for different side blades that add a nice visual experience.

I also agree with the above, the Plantir mod is very cool.
Gentlemen that makes them really nice is right here on Pinside, here's the link:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1227-williamson-pinball-mods/02988-palantir-eye-of-sauron-crystal-sphere-mod-for-stern-lotr

When I received my game, it came with a color DMD, so I have a hard time giving a solid comparison response (as I've enjoyed and sometimes preferred regular one-color DMD on certain games). However, I've gotten used to it on my game and I will say the colored animations seem to match fairly well with the game and I think it looks pretty good.

Congrats on the new game!

Congratulations!

I have lots to say on lighting and mods. Instead of describing things in an essay I just made a quick youtube video. Showing off whats in my personal machine. As you are local you are welcome to swing on by and check out anything.

Of note, When I got my machine a few months ago, it was all original, but with about 15 uninstalled mods included, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend everything in mine to everyone.

Of everything in here, the upgraded flipper coils were the best upgrade by far followed by the color DMD.

Great game!

Great video!! ^^agree, the upgraded flipper coils are nice and can be obtained on most current pinball parts sites.

https://www.pinballlife.com/lotr-special-flipper-coil-090-5020-2ot.html

Yes, the flasher for the eye at the backglass is nice and is pretty cool interaction with gameplay.

https://www.pinballlife.com/backbox-flasher-kit-for-lord-of-the-rings.html

Do not, I repeat DO NOT buy these coils. They are far too strong. The only coils that should be put in the pin are the APB medium strength coils.

I recommend the medium ones. That's what I have.

These are the upgraded stronger coils recommended for the game, but while they do have good overall power for the far shots like the left and center ramp, they are fairly strong for the closer ramp like the right side, I agree. Otherwise, I have had perfectly good playing results with the above recommended coil upgrade.

If there is a link for these other medium strength coils that you mentioned, would you mind to post a link?

I am always willing to try out recommend changes personally so that I have a better feel for the differences. Otherwise, I can't make further comment as this coil upgrade noted above in my previous post was already performed when I got my game, so I can't speak to the comparative experience with the coil you mention.
Thanks!

Edit: I did a web search for those medium coils, and it looks like it is just one seller, and they are out of stock. All of the other vendors are selling the coil that I linked above. Below is the link to the sold out medium strength flipper coils that you mentioned. Does anyone know where else these can be obtained for those who may want to give it a try?

ebay.com link: itm

Correct, they are manufactured and sold directly by APB. I would just message them through their website or Ebay store if you'd like a set.

I bought Terry's coils first but had far too many airballs and even broken plastics. I even had some scary loud glass strikes. Thed mediums are all the strength you need for those long sessions but won't beat the heck our of your pin.

Thanks for this info, I will shoot him a text, see if he would be willing to make some for me. I'd like to give them a try.

I had to do it…cheese topping!

3116A041-70A0-42A8-B43D-D6964F41AB66 (resized).jpeg

Thanks everyone. I caught the messages on ebay, and put them back in the store.

Much appreciated!

Andrew

Awesome! Thank you!!
Just ordered 2 of them now

Has anyone tried the pinsound package "LOTR Baker effect VF"? The description is in french and not sure if the game call outs will be in french either.

VF stands for french version. I am going to guess it's all in french...

Does anyone know if someone produces radcals or alternate cab art for LOTR?

Retro refurbs does, I was looking at it awhile back

Those are awesome, anyone have experience putting these on? Just from looking at the head it looks like there are two screws that are exposed, wonder if the decals just go over them.