Cool, thanks for that. I think I have more than that, gotta go through it and then will end up listing it at some point.

Pippin seems to be missing his head in my game... I found a cheap-ish replacement on eBay, so I should be good to go with figures.

Did Stern ditch the removable weapons for these figures on the slings or were those perhaps lost along the way?

Most of my weapons were missing. I took off the others knowing they would come off during play.

None had them from Stern on my NIB pin. I bought the big figure pack very early on (2004) and superglued them all in their hands. I think maybe one has fallen off in 14 years.

I see the list has been posted, but if you wanted to see images of the figures and their placement, check page 90 of the manual.

Are you making these or someone selling them? I agree it looks great...

Question on the Arwen plastic, I've read that this plastic has broken for some folks.

Back in the day, I installed the POTD plastic diverter that sends the ball to the wireform instead of allowing it to flow off the end of the POTD. I did this mod because I liked the faster flow of the game.

Are folks having problems from the ball falling off the POTD on to the Arwen plastic or from a shot to the Shire? I have noticed that shots to the Shire are pretty hard from the right flipper, I could see it possibly bouncing up and hitting the edge of the Arwen plastic. If that is not the way the Arwen plastic is breaking for everybody, I won't worry about it.

There is a clear piece of plastic that covers the arwen piece that will protect it just fine. The potd diverter mod increases the flow of the game but it actually is to your disadvantage. The game was designed to give you extra souls if the ball falls off the potd into the shire so you are actually making the game harder by using that mod.

I finally joined the club with a very nice HUO machine. Does anyone have a topper they want to sell? PM me.

I must have missed this mod when I took a pinside vacation. Thanks for posting it. Looks like it would really help this area.
Ordered it. Roughly $47 including shipping to US

Does anyone need one of these? PM me if interested.

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Just not sure the few extra souls you get is worth it over the diverter, it's another stop/start process in shooting the POTD.

I see it as simply nerfing the game or not.

I've owned LOTR for over 14years and taken it to shows too. And my ball falls down to the saucer. I've put the petg plastic under the factory plastic and it's held up fine.

Just picked up this HUO LOTR over the weekend. Did a complete shop job, added Cointaker premium LEDs, added spotlights at the top of the slingshots, and speaker LEDs and acrylics. I changed the Cointaker kit a little to have more warm white for the GI and I changed the coloring of several insert lights. I think it came out great and I couldn't be happier!

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Looks great... the warm whites really photograph well!!

Now, if I might be so bold, I would offer up that ColorDMD and mirror blades would make that baby even more beautiful. Oh yeah, don’t forget the Palantir Projected Eye mod. And Ryan’s habitrail mod for left ramp return. And... ok, the list gets too long... just play and have fun!!

I'm considering the color DMD. My collection is made up of 6 Stern games. If I buy it for one, I'll have to buy it for all...that's just how it goes.

I would love to get the Palantir projected eye mod, but can't seem to find it anywhere. I haven't see that Jay is making them anymore, but would definitely buy one if I can find it.

I am on the list with Ryan for his next run of habitrail mods. I can't wait to get that clear plastic out of there!

I ordered the sword tip decal, the shire decal, and a topper from Tilttoper.com which should all be here in a few days. The topper purchase is like the ColorDMD...all my other games have them so I had to.

It's fantastic on this game!

Buy three and they throw in free shipping! What a steal

Now that the LED ColorDMD is available, has anyone used the LED version on LOTR? Any opinions on it vs the LCD in this game?

I'm really loving this game. I only played it a few times over the years prior to buying it, so never really learned the intricacies. I get to discover most everything as brand new in my home now.

I'm also not sure what's a mod and what's stock.

I've got these things installed that I'm confident are mods:
-Shaker Motor (and supporting roms)
-Side blades (that I actually hate the look of and will be removing...)
-Some kind of Palantir mod. It's a nicer looking orb with no screw thread going up through it, but it's not one with a projected image.
-Lit Gandalf staff - it's blue and my eyes can't stand blue lights, so I'm going to have to change it out to something else. I think I could actually improve upon the design of this mod.
-Plastic protector over the Arwen plastic and perhaps a couple others.
-decal at the sword tip - I saw someone mention this as a mod, so I guess it's a mod and not stock.
-some extra wraith models standing on either side of the sword handle. I'll probably remove or relocate these.
-it came with a terrible looking guy from the army of the dead and lighting for it down in the coin box, but I'll probably go with Armies of Middle Earth figures instead.

At any rate, I didn't realize I was getting some of those mods. I'd have wanted the shaker and nicer palantir anyway, so I guess I saved a bit of money with those included.

All of those items listed are mods. LotR-LE(2009) came stock with a shaker, but those have gold armor and a special translite with gold outlines, so you don't have an LE.

It's all subjective. I don't like the LCD for any DMD game. Others feel the exact opposite. I only use the LED display coupled with the Comet "glare guard."

If you can view them in person at a (b)arcade or a friends house, that might help you decide what is right for you.

Do you have a LED in LOTR? If so, can you post video? I can't find one with the LED version installed. Thanks!

I’m debating about my winter project. I have a TSPP playfield cleared by Ron K and the LOTR cleared by Ron K.....which one do I do? I’m thinking LOTR

My LOTR is under an LED light in my basement. I made a video of a 14 minute game but not close up to the LED display. I also made a 6 minute video with a close up. I think LED looks great in LOTR, TOM, and ST LE. I have LCD in Spiderman and STTNG. I have the Spiderman at large DOTs and the STTNG on the setting that blends the dots. I think I like LED better. Of course that is always a subjective personal opinion.

Close up video:

Longer video:

Hope this helps. Michael

This does help and looks great! Thanks a ton for posting the vids!

What the major difference between the LCD and LED? I put LCD in mine.

Anyone who have added the convolux mod?
Pinside thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/convoluxcom
Store options: http://www.shop.freddys-pinball-paradise.de/index.php?f=3&q=convolux%206578
It looks REALLY nice on other machines I have seen and want to add to my LOTR...
Any experience and color advice - red seems obvious!?

LCD provides more display options including larger dots and the blending of the dots to create solid text and pictures (high resolution upscaling). It looks good straight on but is dimmer. You can really see this at an angle. It is larger since it is basically a laptop display.

LED is brighter and just has the ability to display dots. The colors pop. The size is exactly the same as original display. The price is a little less.

Since I like the brighter display and the look of the dots, LED is better for me.

I prefer the hi rez or dots XL depending on the title so I always go with LCD on my games. Just a taste thing and what you happen to prefer.

Does anyone have one of the lighted volcano mods? If so, do you like it?

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1139-pinworlds/01650-lighted-volcano-mod-for-mt-doom-lord-of-the-rings-pinball

I have it. I like it. It is stands out. In the video I posted above about the colordmd, you can sort of see it when display is not reflecting.

Wondering if someone can take a quick look at their game, and confirm if the speaker wires are the same as it my photos.

My TSPP has the black striped wires going to "+".

Would really appreciate any help on this.

Thanks

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Same as mine.

So you have black striped wires going to "+"?

Do you know if reversing the polarity (as I had done unknowingly) could have caused something to go on the CPU/sound board?

Yes, black stripe is positive. It shouldnt do any damage if you reversed them, it just won't work. The signal is going out to the sub, not flowing back in.

The top amp gets much hotter than the one below it.

That normal?

Just joined the club!

Won't bore you all with the mods list, let's just say "extensive"
Don't want to add stuff for the sake of it, but most of the mods improve the light show or sound, or keep the ball in the right places/stop things from breaking so I figure why not. And modding is fun!

Bloody hell what a deep rule set though. I picked up Dracula in about an hour. After an hour of LOTR last night and I'm still "wait! What?"

Love it!

The topper from Tilt came today. It looks beautiful on LOTR. I know some people don't like toppers, but I have them on all my games.

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I love the Ms Pac on the wall!

Anyone have any tips for when the sword ramp plunger assembly is sticking such that when two balls are locked and the ball returns from the vuk or ring, it drops both locked balls instead of only one. I assume it could be grime on the coil sleeve, old spring, mushroomed coil stop or mushroomed plunger assembly or any combination of them. Anyone have any suggestions what is likely to wear out first? Or am I better off just purchasing multiple parts of the assembly? I'd appreciate any help you can think of. Thanks.

Would try disassembling the mech, cleaning everything, replacing the coil sleeve and reassembling before ordering any parts.

Just pull it apart first... won't take you long. More than likely just grimy or maybe the spring broke. Check its action in test mode too.

Flipper and pop bumper plungers and stops wear because of the high number of cycles they go through. Most other solenoid mechs don't ever wear out the plunger and stop. Just sleeves links and springs wear

Quick question, is the light bulb in Balrog supposed to be a 89 bulb? I just order a new bulb socket, but it's bigger than the one that I am replacing, which used a 44 bulb.

So one of them isn't right. Which one?

No it's a 44/47 socket. It's just a 12v bulb though, so they are harder to get in that size/voltage.

The socket part number is: 077-5003-00-80

Here is one bulb that fits the 44/47 and is 12 volts:
https://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/5smd12vba9s.htm

So this is wrong?

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It's correct for some machines. Early build LOTR's (like mine) have the 89 size base. Stern swapped this out because bulbs were blowing rather quickly with the bashing the mech gets.

See Service Bulletin #148 (Balrog LED Module Installation) for more details:

http://www.sternpinball.com/upload/downloads/sb148.pdf

I have the original led service bulletin bulb, how does the comet bulb compare? I was wondering if it was brighter and lit the balrog more to give him a more fiery appearance.