Doing a little house cleaning and stumbled across a couple extra additional unused items that I have:
- Path of the Dead figures
- Gandalf on Shadowfax figure
- Backbox flasher kit.
if anyone is interested in purchasing any of these items, shoot me a PM. Thanks.

*Update-SOLD*

Speaker Light Kits are bonkers nice. A bit of work to install (on my EHoH at least), but well worth it. So many colors, patterns, effects. Highly recommend.

Does anyone recognize this as related to LOTR? My recently aquired pin came with a full set of plastics, and this is the only piece I could t place after looking at sets of lotr plastics. Maybe for a later run, or a mod, or maybe from another machine and accidentally included. Just wondering to keep or toss.

Also I'm thinking of selling my extra plastics off to pay for mods. Any I should 100% keep? (Commonly breaks). Machine has arwen but extra set has the alternate. Only one Ive heard of breaking (will get a protector for her)

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That piece is what the ball often hits when it falls back out of the ring hole. Located directly under the center ramp.
I wouldn't say any of the plastics commonly break except for Arwen. Are you splitting up your extras or just selling as a group?

Willing to split up. if anyone needs plastics just PM me. Most still have the protective film(which is why they look bad in photos) which has gotten difficult to remove with age , but i removed a few with hot water just to make sure it was possible.

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Hey guys.. I believe my machine has been swapped to all LEDs (not sure if non ghosting??), with no OCD board. Is that what it looks like from this video? Path of the dead and flashers are the only incandescents I saw. So I can install an OCD to make the inserts flash a lot more smoothly?

Go to single lamp test mode and turn one at a time and if when turning on some you see others light partially, that is ghosting. It is hard to see the ghosting in attract mode like your video.

Yes LED OCD is designed to make the LEDs turn on more smoothly and less blinky, and it will also stop any ghosting.

In my observation there, it looks like those are ghosting bulbs. The LedOcd board will dramatically help this, but I don’t know how that board works with ghosting leds once you fix that, you will be in heaven, or the Shire. Take ur pick.

LED OCD states not to use “non ghosting” bulbs

That was my guess ..my setup is very slick with comet bulbs and ocd ..board.

Yes, that’s normal with LED’s. I’ve posted this in this forum before, this is what the LED OCD will do for you. Easy install as well with detailed instructions. Would be cheaper to go back to incandescents. I understand both arguments for which way to go. I personally have LED’s with the LED OCD board and pinstadiums, but have played the game with incandescent bulbs and see the appeal of the warmth that way as well.

My understanding is that it can be made to work with no ghosting bulbs with the settings. I'm sure others will chime in, since many here use the LED OCD.

The answer you seek is here. He answers it in detail. Tl;dr it will work with tweaks but the on/off ramp won’t be as dramatic as regular LEDs.

http://ledocd.com/faq_led.html

Yeah I would get an Arwen protector and sling plastic protectors and you’ll likely be good. Much cheaper than hunting down replacements.

Thanks all. I did try single lamp mode and I didn't notice any ghosting, so I guess that means I have no ghosting. I'll contemplate whether I want to go ocd with those or back to incandescent.

I had 2 elf ring LEDs out and one on the fritz. Decided to try green instead of white (mostly because that's what I could scrounge up). I also 3d printed a puck for the insert. The top is a bit thick, so from players perspective it's less bright. But still an improvement I think.

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Yup its common for the white ring LEDs to burn out.

Stern just released a video on Facebook of a lotr machine. You think they might make a vault edition? If so, how will it affect prices of original lotr?

It's not Stern's video. Stern wouldn't put seizure inducing LEDs in a game that can't support them. My guess is they just reposted the video. They do it all the time.

If I were a betting person I wouldn't bet on a vault edition of a game released 20 years ago. License is long expired and renewing it wouldn't make much financial sense given the limited production and the cost of adapting the game to new hardware. Plus it's just not that hard to find a used LOTR and they are usually still priced slightly less than Stern NIB Pros.

Good point

Anyone tried putting moss in their machine?

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creative but not for me.

Same. Visually interesting but even well attached you'd have some debris falling into the game with the vibration.

i wouldn't put organic material inside, but I do have big plans for sprucing up my figures. Pretty unhappy with how they are mounted/posed. I have bought a bunch of additional figures / replacement weapons, I'm going to re-paint them(miniature painting is another hobby of mine) , pose them properly, and readd or custom create some scenic bases incorporated into the plastics (bought some acrylic sheets and will just use my original plastics as templates).

For the slings in particular, I'm going to do the 4 hobbits in the shire and make a base approximately the same shape/size as the original plastic. with flock and grassy tufts and completely opaque. I don't expect to have too much debris from that, at least not an unmanageable amount.

products similar to these, to give an idea
https://www.amazon.com/Army-Painter-Battlefields-Basing-Set/dp/B07NKZT1BM

Will be a few months before i get around to it, but excited to share when I'm done.

It was Sterns video. It was sent by Stern.

Stern reposts pics and videos they were tagged in. They’ve reposted some of mine. This is why i know they do this.

Yeah I see what your saying. What I'm saying is Stern themselves decided to send out a video containing lord of the rings content. I don't care who or what made the original. But I'm talking about Stern choosing to bring up lord of the rings. Why is that? I don't know. I bet Gary does.

I assure you Gary is not directly involved in social media posting... In fact, I would wager the person who does do social media posting is not privy to future products.

They often post OOP games on their social media, especially instagram...

New Munsters movie out? Post about Munsters Pinball.
New Stranger things season? Post about ST pinball
Beastles Day? Post the Beatles Pinball
Elvis movie? Elvis Pinball

Lord of the Rings show? Get it??

At a point where they are only releasing 2 pinball machines a year, you can imagine they would really struggle for content to post without revisiting some of their old machines.

Would they ever release a LOTR VE with the LCD upgrade? I have heard the LOTR license is notoriously hard and difficult to get/work with it but maybe since Embracer owns it now, it would be easier.

I'm supping up a LOTR machine that I recently picked up. I’m new to working on pins and looking for advice. I just finished switching out to LEDs and putting all new rubbers in the machine. I’ve also added a color DMD and new flipper coils.

A couple other areas that I need to work on are the upper left pop bumpers and the ball plunger. That specific pop bumpers don’t seem to have a whole lot of action to it. It doesn't shoot the ball when it falls through the orc roll overs (but it does light up and score an orc hit). The pop bumper does seem to respond once when the ball is launched from one of the other two pop bumpers. Is that something that is common on lord of the rings? And if I were to fix/upgrade this would I just switch out the coils or are there other common things to try first?

The ball plunger is a little bit sticky. Still works good for skill shots but doesn’t feel smooth when you’re pulling it back. Any recommendations for the plunger?

Also the number two roll over on the path of the dead upper doesn't register when the ball flies through it fast. I've cleaned the switch and was thinking the next thing I'd try is swapping out the switch.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Is there a mod that straightens out Aragorn so you can see the skill shot lights better?

Sounds like some minor adjustments. The pop bumpers are activated by leaf switches so make sure the contacts are about 1/8” apart. I’m hoping you added an ledocd board with the leds. This game has beautiful light dimming that leds can’t replicate on their own.

I also have a sticky shooter rod. I’ve tried cleaning it with novus 1 which seems to work for a little while. I’d be interested if anyone has a better solution.

The 4 switches are disabled when the VUK kicks the ball to the upper playfield for a second to make sure no switch registers from the vibration. Sometimes a ball quickly rolls over the upper right switch before they are re-enabled and it appears like the switch is not always working, but that is normal.

How do you clean the guide?

Wow this is supper helpful! Thank you so much!

I'll try cleaning the plunger rod and adjusting the LEAF switch on the pop bumper and see if that fine tunes everything.

And that is very helpful knowing the 4 switches on the upper playfield are disabled for a second. I won't worry about when the ball goes through fast and doesn't activate a switch.

I do the same thing..but I run a wad of that never dull through it..bind it up and twist it in and out..do this a couple times until all the tarnish collects into the wad..then half- soak a pre-rolled paper towel in alcohol and 'twist' it into the guide, and pull it through from the inside of the cabinet, cleaning any remiaining resedue/tarnish..then run a dry paper towel through it, the same way..let air dry for a few minutes, and install the freshly cleaned rod. should be good as new (unless a rod is bent, or the guide is rusty/funky inside..this is at least what I do..ymmv.

I am installing a PinSound card in LOTR. Anyone have any suggestions for a good sound package?

I don't like that most of them used the original sounds from Stern - which were highly compressed and stand out from the additions from the movie. I am hoping that someone either highly processed them to remove the distortion and created fake stereo, or sampled the movies (a whole lot of work!).

https://www.pinsound-community.org/index.php?/files/category/92-the-lord-of-the-rings/

Honestly it's been asked a ton of times. My recommendation is since there are only 6 to choose from, download them all and see which you like the best.

I have sjoend and original sound that I switch between. Make sure you update firmware on pinsound as it can cause stuttering with some of these sound packages.

This is one of the problems for those of us who don't read 100 % of the posts on places like Pinside or Facebook. We keep asking the same question.

And honestly, I have done a search for answers looking for recommendations.

I could choose those 6 and try them - I have one loaded now (I don't know which of the two is loaded) and don't like it. So I have to delete one of the two and try again, I guess; unless there is a way to identify which file is loaded.

I was hoping that there was a general consensus rather than having to try all six.

I volunteer at a pinball museum and I dislike the sound on their LOTR. It is jarring when it goes from the original sounds to the music. The music is in stereo and the original sounds are flat.

When I upgraded a Tommy to PinSound, there was a consensus as to which was the best and I think the owner was happy with that. The person who processed it used mostly new stereo music, but when they used the original call-outs, they did a nice job of processing them in stereo so they meshed well.

You can download all of them on one USB and switch between them lowering volume to 0 and back up again and it cycles through them. At least on my pinsound I have in TAF.

Addendum: I think you have to double tap zero and it switches.

Yes double tap to zero to switch. This is what I did it, try them all to find the one you personally like best.. Keep in mind it takes longer for the board to start up the more packages you add, so once you choose the one you like you may want to delete the others off the USB stick.

I see your frustration on these mixes. One mix is better, musically, but doesn’t sound as good AQ-wise as the other. I made a king henry’s mix for demo man-i may very well do the same for lotr. Which would surpass anything I’ve heard so far. Film composer (of sorts) here.

Give a try on my modified wool mix, with a lot of real gandalf voice and new tracks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erNQooA4FqiwTs7JDHd91QYwM_iTrvEM/view?usp=sharing

whats the name of the file of the sound when the ball is ejected to the ramps , the horrendous " pew pew pew "
I need to modify that one! :p

So the available pinsound mixes are hit and miss, but does anyone have any regrets about getting the board for LOTR? (as in not as much value as you expected?)
And for anyone that has pinsound and color dmd on this game, which did you think had a bigger impact on your enjoyment of the game?

I'm focusing on sprucing up under the glass first on my newly aquired game, but I'm trying to decide what order to get these higher dollar purchases in:

(this is my current order)
pinsound
color dmd
invisiglass

With pinsound you can also custom your own sound set, you can mix things. For STNG someone did an impressive work and create an amazing sound set, for Indy the same, for totan there is nothing, so i changed myself some of the songs, specially the multiball and genie/skeleton boss battle that are a bit silly musics. For LOTR i just ordered my pinsound, for what already exist is already cool in my oppinion, but maybe i will change some and mix them. Pinsound is a tool to modify sound sets, it doesn't sell you a sound set

Color DMD is always an amazing mod for pinball machines, i have 4 and i don't regret at all.

Pinsound Plus board on LotR is, imho, a bigger upgrade than a color LCD Display..and I have both. It's funny as I don't really look up that much on LotR-my machine is fast and brutal, and unforgiving..usually you get a 'break' on other machines, with a chance to look at the dmd..for me, not so much on LotR..And once you get used to the original Howard Shore score on this pin, it's pretty bleak when you cycle through to the legacy pin track..I'm a composer, so music is more important than a DMD in almost all cases on pins anyway. This pin is ALL ABOUT IMMERSION..and the original score makes it even more immersive (like actually 'being' in the films..just my .03

I tried this last night on my supper sticky plunger and it feels bran new now. Thank you for the tip Tommy_Pins & KING-HENRY

I have a set of plastics that I am going to put up for sale. I bought them for spares some years ago, but have never needed them. They have been stored in the original bag, in a room that averages about 50-53% humidity year round. I would like to sell the entire set, but will consider breaking it up for interested buyers if it comes to that. I am working on getting pictures together before I go live with the sale. Hopefully, in the next 2-3 days, plus I want to get a proper box and a shipping quote before going live so there are no mysteries about the total cost. They still have the original protectors and look a bit foggy, but that is normal over time.