Are the balls magnetized and get stuck in the trough? This is a pretty typical issue in LOTR's

It has the shire decals and has cliffys everywhere as well as plastic protectors. DEFINITELY needs the POTD mod! I'll have to snag the palantir and ring target decals too. I'm also thinking of getting decals for the cabinet. There are some pretty badly worn areas on the cabinet and from what I can tell the cabinets are direct printed? I was thinking of going with this alternative decal set: https://www.retrorefurbs.com/shop/lord-of-the-rings-alternate-pinball-cabinet-decals/

those cabinet decals look nice but a huge change as compared to the original cabinet, might be an issue for buyers if you ever want to sell but personally I am not planning on selling mine for a long time !

my tilt topper seems a variation on those decals

https://tilttopper.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Flord-of-the-rings-pinball-topper

spoiler alert! if this is the papa video he doesn't get there...

My understanding of the valinor strategy is to aim towards getting the 7 elf gifts 3 of the gifts must come from completing the 3 multiballs , the other 4 can come from completing modes ,TABA or destroy the ring . so for elf gift acquisition since only the shots in a mode count towards qualifying the multiballs it probably makes more sense to get the elf gifts from mode completion .

At least TABA times out.... but the DTRs either end with you making it or draining? I just realized this!

I saw somewhere that keefer coded that the ring frenzies will give an extra ball when you get to 3x( 2 shots made?) I do not see that extra ball is there a setting for this?

My strategy has always been to use MBs to complete 3 of the modes for gifts. If that goes well, you can forget about all the other modes and time them out, as the other 4 gifts must come from completing the 3 MBs and DTR.

I know if I have a fighting chance based on my first go at ROTK and DTR. If I F-up ROTK, and I miss completing DTR the first time around, the odds of Valinor decrease significantly.

ROTK is the real killer though. I've only completed it twice, and those two games were one or two shots away from Valinor.

In my opinion, this game in coding perfection!!!

Not sure how Dwight was part of this magic, and now he does games like Munsters

Shoot, did not think of magnetization... have been trying to adjust the switches for hours.

So no way to solve it apart from shaking the machine? Or very regular ball change?

Make sure you’re using basic carbon steel balls. No ninja or chrome balls, they will magnetize quickly.

Every time I play this game I am reminded how perfect the code and rules are. You have so much to do, but it never feels like chopping wood at all. I defeated Balrog last night in the FOTR multiball for the first time. I always started the 3 MBs to get to DTR, but I never finished them. Now I’m trying to collect all the gifts from the elves, which requires a lot of skill and a little luck! They just don’t make them like LOTR anymore.

Remember, you only need 3 gifts from modes. It's best to start modes with a MB that has similar shots. For instance, Two Towers with Warg.

After getting those the other 3 gifts would ideally come from MBs, and the final one from completing DTR.

All of which is required to ever get a shot at Valinor.

There is a lot to do in LOTR but the strategy is to not do more than you have to

Great advice/strategy for getting to Valinor. I'm still far from achieving that, but I did finally destroy the ring (twice in the same game) on my current LOTR machine. I'm getting better at sharpshooting the various shots, so I have far less wasted activity. With only 3 balls, and extra ball settings on difficult, there is little room for error. I finally collected 3 gifts recently, my best so far. I have a long ways to go, which is a good thing!

Part of me hopes I never get to Valinor...it's the journey that is just so compelling.

Quick poll :

DTR setting #35 : set to 1 or 2 balls ?

I've set mine on 2 as it was designed this way, but I can't destroy the ring as ball falls down instead of going through.
Is it cheating to use 1 ?

It's not cheating with 1 but the 2 ball dtr shot is one of the best shots in pinball!!

Have not had my machine that long but the 1st ball falling out usually only happens when I am flailing along with a 5 minute dtr

I would try tuning everything if you get it frequently before going to 1 ball.

Getting to valinor is quite an accomplishment either way but
1 ball dtr is easier. if I ever get to valinor and am inducted into the valinor hall of fame I don't want this

Pinballjj * *(1 ball dtr)

Had an interesting thing happen last weekend that this 1 ball/2 ball DTR talk reminded me of. I had extra ball lit while in DTR (2-ball), put the ball in Gimli with only the 2nd ring shot left to hit (wide right, as we do in WNY)...extra ball...pops out of Gimli, comes around to the right flipper, and hit it into the ring to DTR. Weird thing was that the extra ball animation and sounds were still going and they overrode the DTR animation as well as all the "switches going ape shit" that makes DTR so fun. All I got was a pair of disabled flippers and another 2 seconds of extra ball celebration (well, and 5M points I guess...). Never had that timing before, would have been very underwhelmed if that was my first DTR though.

Not just WNY, Bills fans everywhere still feel that pain.

So I just realized that my sword blade is gold-colored and stock is silver. Not sure why the previous owner did that. Attached a pic to see what it looks like - kinda hard to get a pic that captures the color.

My question is for anyone with the sword tip decal. Is the decal colored silver to match the sword, or is it clear with shading on it? Obviously a silver decal wouldn't work on this gold sword, but if it's clear it should be fine. Can anyone answer that?

MVIMG_20190623_142512 (resized).jpg

Edit: I’m wrong, the one I have actually is clear

The same thing happens is you earn a replay right then. It overrides the DTR stuff. It happened to me the second time I destroyed the ring, and I carried that pain for years.

My tip decal is clear. You can see the striations in the metal sword through the decal.

The quick dirty guide to Valinor.
1.) Complete 3 regular modes,.collect gift of the elves.
2.) Focus all remaining efforts on completing the 3 movie multi ball modes.
3..) Once all 3 MMB modes completed, collect remaining gift of the elves BEFORE you DTR.
4.) Destroy the ring one last time.
5.) Kind of out of order but DO NOT play TABA... stall ball on flipper and run out the clock
6.) Get to Valinor.
Seriously, I wish I had known this like forever ago. So help me God once I beat LOTR it's getting sold.

Don't forget you also have to collect a 7th gift before destroying the ring to get Valinor. I destroyed the ring one time while having the 7th gift ready to collect and could only sarcastically laugh about it afterwards when I destroyed the ring and Valinor did not start as I was not going to be able to start all of the multiballs again at that point.

where are you getting the 7th elf gift from? if you complete the 3 mmb you are at 6 elve gifts but you cannot start another ring mode as the next ring shot will start DTR. maybe get to 4 non MMB gifts by a DTR along the way before completing the MMBs?

it is clear but I think the shading is biased for an underlying silver sword, it probably would like fine with the gold sword as well though

3 modes, 3 MBs, and 1 DTR. There are your 7 gifts.

Then you just have to line everything up so that the next time you go to DTR, everything is completed, including starting TABA.

Ah, makes sense

I seem to always screw up that first DTR, and that makes your chances at Valinor pretty slim. I think I need to upgrade to the medium coils, because I usually drain from a weak center shot.

Also, can anyone confirm, does DTR have to be completed before you start another DTR to get to Valinor? Pretty sure I know the answer, but just checking.

Check the picture in my post 3469. I put in 2 posts with the larger rings to keep the plastic in place. Stops the crack from getting bigger. Not sure if this will fix your issue.

I upgraded to the medium coils and didn't notice any difference over the originals.

Didn't notice that flippers don't get fatigued during a long game?

Funny amazing story. I bought a complete LOTR replacemt plastic set specifically for the shire plastic. Somehow I managed to.lose this piece. A couple years later I'm taking a load of crap to the dump. As Im unloading the crap, I look down and I'll be damned if the shire piece wasnt laying there. Couldnt believe it. I have NO freaking clue what happened let alone how it got there. I appreciate the adding posts and rubbers post. Very helpful. I do believe the shire plastic gets hammered from a poor Aragon ramp shot where the ball ricochets off the rubber posts and slams into the shire. I'm considering doubling the plastic and using belly button style pop rivets to secure with.

Have you installed it yet. If not any chance you could scan it?

Got my sword hilt from rpgmodels, and it looks amazing!

not a huge fan of the golden blade with the hilt, though. I'll prob end up buying a regular silver one. Anyone want to trade??

MVIMG_20190627_165111 (resized).jpg

When I installed the sword from rpgmodels, I also put super bands on my flippers. I played one game to test them out, and got closer to valinor than I've ever been.

I had collected 5 gifts, been to all the modes, and beaten 2/3 MB's. I was one shot away from TABA and one shot away from TT multiball for the second time.

Not bad for a throwaway game just to test the flippers!

Love mine looks great

Looks like your plastic on the left is on backwards

How did I miss that? Lol it's so obvious. Thanks for pointing it out

Sorry, can't help ya. My pin came with the blades on already. I would imagine you have to pull the whole play field, but I'm not the best-equipped to answer.

My shire plastic broke off entirely. Any reason to even bother replacing it? Will it affect the game/ball somehow negatively?

I've installed severals only raising the playfield as usual.
Do one half, then the other.
Also works for powerblades.

I installed them on mine, trickiest installs on artblades I've done. As a matter of fact I had to order a second set as I screwed the first one up.

I ended up doing it wet, and while other thicker vinyl blades can be done wet while leaving the playfield installed in a vertical position, that will not work with these artblades (That's how I messed up the first set).

Easiest way is to do it wet with the playfield totally removed from the cabinet.

Next easiest and the way I did it was to rest the front of the playfield all the way forward on the service rails, and then got 2 equal length pieces of wood and supported the rear of the playfield up so that the rear of it was basically about 12" up above the cabinet edge. Then used the wet method on the vinyl to get it in place.

The other thing is the playfield is tight in my cabinet, and having blade protectors from PBL when lowering/raising the playfield is a must IMO.

I personally would never do blades wet on my pins. I rested the service rails on the LDB receiver and had my wife push down on the apron to lift the back of the PF up. That's the way I install all of my blades and it always works great.

No I have not installed it yet. Was considering trying to reproduce these just not sure how to go about it.

Pulled the trigger on full LED conversion. Installed the LEDOCD and the Gizmo board. After installing the Gizmo board I had several lights stop working. I tried jumper settings and to no avail. Pulled it off and lights working again /shrug. Anyway trying to not make this a clown puke mess I used green, red, yellow and white. Creating contrast best I could. The difference in being able to see the ball is astounding. Literally had the best game ever. Collected 10... yes 10 gifts, dtr beaten twice, beat TT and beat FOTR once. Freaking could NOT beat ROTK. Let TABA time out. 3 attempts to beat ROTK. End of game. I ran into a code bug after getting past collecting all the gifts. When you collect the "7th" gift all gift lights stay lit so you have no idea what you're given (which sucks because you cant smack sam around to change it). After I lost the ball then the gifts reset to normal. /shrug
Here's the list of what I used for LEDs.
I had way too many white 555s so you can drop that to maybe 75? Left 906 bulbs as incandescents.
Comet pinball is the source (cheaper than their kit). All standard LED type and LEDOCD board (ordered from Herg)
100 white 555 (super bright clear natural white)
6 green 555 (frosted)
7 green bayonet (clear)
12 yellow bayonet (clear)
10 red bayonet (clear)
20 white bayonet (clear)

20190628_184819 (resized).jpg

Ack... repost

LEDOCD has been on my mind for a while similar to Pinsound but just haven't pulled the trigger.

I added LEDs without the LEDOCD and it hurt to even look at this game. Sharp nasty flashing. It sat powered off until I bought the LEDOCD. I'd do that before pinsound. And I fully agree ... I do want a pinsound now that there's an alternate sound package.

I've got a weird one that happens sometimes if anyone has any suggestions:

If I lock a ball and then start a mode the lock will release the ball there and the ball from the ring for an unintended 2 ball multiball. Then you are always off a ball then when you start Multiball it will be short balls. I can't figure out what's happening because all the mechanisms seem to be working perfectly.

Any ideas?

Edit: I figured out by taking it apart and running the test over and over that it’s the plunger spacing from the bracket so the coil can’t grab it. I’ve got it consistently firing now but in case this happens to someone else just space the plunger lower into the coil.

Random thoughts here, feel free to move along, nothing of any value here but I’ve had thoughts of trading my LOTR recently, haven’t owned it long but feeling like a change.

In my small 2 game collection I traded it for my MET as I had found having two games constantly slap me upside the head lacked fun some evenings... I had always enjoyed playing LOTR back when it first came out in the arcades and when one came up locally for trade and the person wanted a MET I took the plunge.

I made the trade on the promise of longer ball times, so I thought I’d let TWD continue to abuse me and then to calm down I could go play with LOTR. That for the most part has been a real success.

I can’t put my finger on it and it’s not so much that I miss MET but I think I feel like something is missing... I just came off an amazing game and it felt great, had collected 6 gifts, finished 2 out of three multiballs, one mode away from there and back again, destroyed the ring once... had a good time... in fact I had done most of that when ball 2 drained... (played two extra balls) and when ball 3 entered the shooter lane I just about turned the game off... I had been playing for a good while... and I just didn’t want to play it anymore... I had been playing TWD previously and had my lunch handed to me so I got the long ball times I was looking for but something just wasn’t there for me.

I had gotten out to local tournament recently and gotten the chance to play some really nice games and then found myself dreaming about another pin... I hope to add a third pin to the lineup next year some time and part of me thinks I should just hold on to LOTR for a while longe but another part of me wants to see if the grass may greener on the other side of the fence... this isn’t a For Trade Post... just writing some thoughts down, thanks for reading if you made it this far

I just installed PDI glass on my LOTR, and the reflection of the backglass vanished completely. I can still seem some of the DMD dots, but what a difference!