Cliffy is and always will be number 1. However, if you are just talking shooter lane I like the "Pin Shied" protectors. It's a cut piece of plastic you drop in the shooter lane. I usually just put down mylar in the shooter lane and cut it to shape but this can take about an hour to do right. You can't see it when I'm done.

Palantir Mod is available in my shop: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1227-willipinball-mods/02988-palantir-eye-of-sauron-crystal-sphere-mod-for-stern-lotr

EDIT, RESOLVED: This seems to have been caused by the switch at the top of the right orbit, the gate switch, triggering unreliably. The previous owner had the wire for a spotlight there zip-tied 1) loosely and 2) in a poor position that could interfere with the ability of the leaf switch for that gate to register. Now that I’ve moved the location of that impeding wire, and the right orbit’s gate can trigger its switch reliably, the right orbit no longer spots Pippin after Merry. Thus, the issue was that the code didn’t see the right orbit’s gate getting hit, so assumed the Pippin switch was hit directly from its intended shot, which is why it was spotting.

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Weird rules question: Is the right orbit- the Merry shot- supposed to also collect Pippin after being shot and fully completing the orbit? I just noticed it happening on my machine…the first time I hit the right orbit, it’ll collect Merry, as I’d expect. If I hit it again, it’ll collect Pippin (the left orbit shot).

Is this a known thing? Bug or feature?

So, I’m interested in redoing the artwork package for LoTR. Does anyone have the playfield layout, and the plastic shapes saved digitally, and be willing to share that with me? Or know how I could find those?

It’ll probably take me a while between work, and other side projects to finish it, but I really want to do it.

Make sure to check out all of 2niros mods. He does the “ring of fire”, “Palantir” and “bara dur”. Palantir and bara dur actually run video so a bit more enhanced than the regular “eye of Sauron” mod if I’m not mistaken.

Best mods for LOTR IMHO.

“Gandalf with lit staff” is also cool and not super expensive. You need a Gandalf on horseback for that one. But those can be had relatively reasonably on eBay. They come from the Armies of Middle Earth series of figures, I think.

Looks like he’s got a new one for the shire plastic, too. Very cool.

https://www.2niro-pinball.com/category/pinball-mods/

Hey guys. Looking to join the club.
What are things I should be looking for in the machine? Common broken parts or places of wear or damage. Any parts hard to get or super expensive. Appreciate the help.

Always carefully look at the ring insert. This insert will lift, causing a crack within the outer orange circle. Playfield color can be funky. If you look at the characters, skin tone should be normal. Character color can look too light or too green. The Stern Whitestar CPU board is very difficult to find. Make sure there is no acid damage near the battery pack. Most parts are still available. This pin is awesome - great pick.

Common wear spots = left ring ramp post (and front left edge of the ramp) if not replaced with a later kit. Left guide rail with the blue nub can wear into the playfield, can be covered with a cliffy. Possible that the Balrog could drag and wear the PF but less common and probably pretty obvious if it does.

Some plastics common to snap: clear Shire scoop, Arwen on left side under POtD, clear plastics under the ring and printed plastic under Gandalf back there. Think Arwen and Shire repros are available but in general plastics aren’t currently available.

Anyone have any different colored rubber layout that they like for their machine? The more I look at it the more I want to change up the rubbers color. Especially the blue square to the left of the Legolas ramp just doesn't fit. A couple other spots too.

I swapped the pathoff the dead post rubbers to a glow in the dark green that looks nice. Looking to do the rest of the machine hoping some people have some pictures or good ideas.

Edit: Maybe some different post sleeve covers too.

I did red sleeves, clear rings. still need to swap out a few things including the blue nub, but hopefully gives you an idea. I like how clear sling rings help illuminate the playfield.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club/page/191#post-7547132

Those red posts make a big difference. I might go red posts and red rubbers all the way around to match the flippers. Not sure how I feel about the clear slings. I think it looks better on yours because you have the nice custom figures above it. Without those special figures on top and without color that area might look like it's lacking something. Thanks for sharing!

Any idea what the name of the part is for that blue nub next to the Legolas ramp? None of the rubber guides for this machine posted anywhere reference what that is.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/626-5057-00

Thanks! This helped me get on the right track and find what I was looking for. I think I am going to try this from Titan in Red : https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=33&product_id=159

If it does not work I will get this one from Marco's

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Orange Titan rubbers

Not to familiar with his Palantir mod. Does it scroll through different videos or can you choose the one you want? I'd only be interested in the eye video

It's a video loop of the flaming eye that reacts when you hit the Palantir, but it also plays a short gollum clip when you land in the "Gollums Cave/Gimli" saucer.

This page has a video of the start up, the 2niro and lord of the rings logos only run on startup, but not during attract or gameplay. Haven't found a video yet that shows gollum durring gameplay, but I can try and shot a short clip tonight so that you can see the full features.

https://www.2niro-pinball.com/palantir-lord-of-the-rings/1883/

Check it:

Correction: the lord of the rings logo sometimes pops up during attract.

Any photos or pictures of the process you have for the custom sling covers? Any chance you have a link to the 3D printer file for Gollum?

For the slings, I just did a quick and dirty cad design of the sling and 3d printed a replacement, so that I could save the original plastics. I bought all new AOME figures, so I had the scenic based they came with. I glued those down, trimmed them a bit, and then applied some "texture" paint to tie it into the sling. Put some tiny rocks (slate) in there. You can search "Vallejo mud" to get an idea of the product. Once that dried I painted it.

Here's gollum. Free!
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4830427

Joined the club with this beauty the other day! So happy to have one finally

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Just picked one up and it's missing the metal rod actuator on the shooter lane switch. It currently has a metal mounting bracket (unlike all of the other brackets which appear to be plastic. The bracket seems to be wrong as the switch doesn't line up with the slot in the playfield. Does anyone know if this bracket should be plastic?

my most recently acquired game is the one is this video - traveled up to the set and bought this one there... awesome and only 700 lifetime plays, still smells new

Just an awesome game with amazing build quality

congrats! Just fyi though can't really say how many lifetime plays the game has. It's easy to reset. Mine said like 50 when I got it when it obviously had 10k+. But if it looks new and your happy with it, that's all that matters!

Fact

it is as new as you can get - I am aware of the reset option on these and others. Just a perfectly cared for, barely moved game with zero wear. Such a fun game to play!

Awesome thanks! Doesn't look like the 3D printer I have has enough fidelity to make that Gollum figure, maybe it could work for the new sling covers. Maybe you posted it earlier, what model printer do you have? What does the AOME figures mean? Are those just new versions of the figures that came with the game? Thanks.

I'm liking that topper, I may have to get me one.

Yes the original figures that came with it were AOME (armies of middle earth)... just search ebay for "AOME", there's a huge variety, multiple sculpts for each char including ones not originally on the pinball.

My 3d printer is a photon mono from several years ago. I believe literally any resin printer you could buy today would be at least as good. resin prints are not great for pinball due to being so brittle but depending on where in the machine, it can be fine. So I wouldn't buy one for pinball mods necessarily.

Wow! That looks loaded. What topper is that?

You can find it on ebay but it is actually two pieces. A flaming background and then the ring in front of it. I like it with just the ring itself but the seller won't sell it separately.

I picked up a stock one and putting all the goodies in it.

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Hello if anyone is looking for button armor I just designed a new one for LoTR and have it availble (along with my others) for my July 2023 pre-order run

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1463-arcade-cabinetscom/08505-pinbawlers-deluxe-armor-pre-order-july

There's LoTR with silver or gold narsil as well as an LoTR LE with smooth gold plastic and a silver narsil (not shown... I'll put up a picture as soon as I make one for my LE)

hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

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LoTR-cabinet-silver (resized).JPG

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LoTR-silver (resized).JPG

Where did you get the Army of the Dead plastic?

Pinside marketplace for plastic

Help!
Hello fellowship, i need your help, I can't find where is the setup to add ball save time when you start the game. I never have ball save in the first seconds. Thanks

called "Freeze Time" in the menus.

Thank you sir!
Damn, first time I saw it called that "freeze time"
Funny fact, just happened this before you wrote

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I saw that one but the ad said it doesn't fit the 2003 version.

I no longer own a lord of the rings I’m cleaning out my closet and found these. I can’t find them on the internet to get prices. Are they worth much or of interest?

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It fits just need to change out the posts to hold it up.

Can find them on eBay. Search "aome" or armies of middle earth + the kit name. Can filter to sold listings to get a good idea. Some kids worth more than others

Heya everyone!

These are being distributed through Marco now. The eBay/Pinside store is too much overhead for me, so shifting it to Marco will make them more readily available to everyone and reduce me having to make one off builds of parts.

LOTR LE Medium Power Coils: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/090-5020-20-ND-MED
LOTR Medium Power Coils: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/090-5020-20-MED

Thank you!

Andrew
APB Enterprises

Anyone have best practices for polishing the game's wire forms? This game's wire forms are too long and squiggly to fit into any cleaner/polisher I have. Any additional worries with the wires being gold/brass instead of the traditional steel?

I bought these a couple of years ago and couldnt be happier with the flippers now. Never any fade.

Mine still have the originals I believe and I need to cradle to get up the ramp. Is it widely recommended to get these medium coils? I read when people have swapped out it was too strong and they reverted back but that may have been with the stronger ones.

The medium are perfect imo.

Have you rebuilt the flippers?