Just the basics. Have you rebuilt the flippers? Are you using upgraded coils?

Others have mentioned the odd VUK sound supposed to be an orc. (grunting?) Maybe a snarl noise?

Pingravings has a couple versions.

https://sites.google.com/view/pingravings/pingravings-home/gallery?authuser=0

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I'm not sure how I managed to conclude that my bridge rectifier was shorted. It was actually TIP122 Q32 that was blowing a fuse on my LOTR.

I installed the speaker light kit w acrylics tonight, and it looks amazing. I have a question about ground strap placement. It was originally speaker panel -- grill -- ground strap -- speaker. Now it is speaker panel -- acrylic -- led box -- grill -- ground strap -- speaker. Is the ground strap ok there?

I also had one of my best games ever. I beat 5 modes including witch-king, beat 2 towers, and collected all 6 gifts. I wasn't close at all on fellowship multiball, which is the hardest for me.

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I beat FOTR for the first time a few days ago and it was like I won the super bowl. I had never come close before.

Who makes that grille kit? It looks amazing.

Doug @

http://www.speakerlightkits.com/

When I first set up my game I put the back legs at the front and had very little slope. I completed FOTR on my first go and got 155M or so. I thought the game was a bit slow and easy! Then I set it up properly at 6.5° and I'm lucky if I can get more than 2 members across and Valinor seems like an impossible dream.

The ground strap was originally between the grill and the speaker so having it there after the light kit install should be fine also.

I'm glad you like the light kit and it looks like you have everything installed as I would suggest. With the LOTR design, it really looks best if the grill is not between the acrylic design and the light source.

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

Yeah, I remembered seeing a post you made about the layering years ago, so I went searching for that post before I installed. It looks incredible.

Just ordered the light kit. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. The acrylic looks great with the gold background! Can’t wait to install it.

The game was barely used when I got it. All coils were like new, so figured I didn't need to upgrade.

The medium coil upgrade is a must IMO for LOTR.....

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1065-apb-enterprises/01414-new-stern-pinball-medium-power-coil-lord-of-the-rings-gnr

The instructions will probably tell you to layer it acrylic - grill - light box - speakers. Instead, layer it acrylic, light box, grill, speakers.

<sigh> You guys cost me so much money with these mod posts. </sigh>

This is probably more information than anyone cares about but it does explain why ground wires are where they are...

There is a requirement on all commercial appliances that any internal electrically conductive materials (metal) that are also exposed to the exterior be at ground potential; This is why the ground braid inside the cabinet/backbox touches every piece of metal that can conduct electricity to the exterior.

Since the outer surface of your speakers is no longer conductive, you don't need to install the ground strap at all.

Installed my Sting topper today. Probably the best topper you can buy that only costs $16?

Sure, its not as flashy as other toppers. But, I'm happy with it. Would look better with a color changing (or even just white) led strip illuminating it from below but I'm not going to worry about that right now.

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Your Dialed IN appears to be broken, you should sell it to me

It would be sick to tie some blue leds to maybe the Orc rollovers or something. Has anyone tried that?

Oh...lol. I had just turned on the machines for the pic...it was still booting up. That's funny. Yeah...right now I have the problem of I have no idea which pin I would swap out to try something new...which of course is a great problem to have.

The instructions actually describe all of the different acrylic mounting methods.

A general rule is if the acrylic is clear or mirrored and it has etched detail in it, the more etched detail area there is, the better it looks if you DO NOT have the grill directly behind it. If you have a clear acrylic like the Ghostbusters Slimer or a heavenly etched mirror acrylic like South Park or Family Guy......if you can't mount the grill behind the light frame, there really isn't any need to buy the acrylic design because it will look like crap with the grill right behind it. It actually just makes the design blend in with the grill and it's barely visible.

I guess some people are afraid of kids sticking gum or pennies in the speaker holes if the grill isn't there closing up the speaker hole, but even adding some washers as spacers to go between the back of the design and the front of the grill is better than having the grill directly behind that type of design.

The LotR design looks good mounted in the standard method (as it doesn't really have that much etched detail), but it looks much better if mounted in the 3D method.

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What you can do about this is extend the screw holding the upper playfield to the post and put two ring rubbers on the screw. This is not permanent and doesn't look bad. Instead of getting that rubber piece, you can put a strip of the beer seal for under the lockdown bar on the top playfield along the right edge where the vuk shoots out. The ball will still go over this rubber, but it won't bounce back down into the vuk.

So just researching the sword a bit more. Some other options that you might want to check out. There is this one for $38 ->

https://www.amazon.com/Anglo-Arms-Hobbit-Sting-Sword/dp/B01N3PY93B/ref=sr_1_33_sspa

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It says its actually made of metal, and the sheath has suede and metal on it. If its actually not made of foam/plastic it seems pretty cheap.

What I was really looking for...was something transparent plastic but doesn't look like cheap plastic...so the sword could glow. There is this one for $15 ->

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bilbo-Baggins-Sword-Child-Halloween-Accessory/46302513?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227033798794&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=86487470088&wl4=aud-566049426705:pla-120072458688&wl5=9029555&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=46302513&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItuOH6_755AIVdyCtBh1WRgL0EAQYAyABEgLz_fD_BwE

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I might just order it just to see what it really looks like. I could always return it.

It's battery powered...but I was thinking of just adding some LED lights to the opposite side of the blade to have it always powered on/glowing instead of trying to figure out how to wire the sword from the battery compartment to the pinball machine.

Ok, that's an interesting idea to use a longer screw and put some rubbers on it, though there isn't a screw for the second place I put the felt (the one closer to the back of the playfield).

It's a funny old game. I've been struggling to get more than 2 or 3 across in FOTR but tonight I defeated Balrog and hit all the victory lap shots.

Finally in the club! Took a 20 hr round trip to Mordor to pick up this flawless game! I looked liked Gollum after I got home but it was worth the journey!

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I have the army of the dead figures just sitting around, is there a light and mounting kit available somewhere?

I splurged and bought a NOS LOTR pf to replace my badly faded one.

Once this gets installed, by cabinet is going to look quite bad by comparison. Has anyone had good results with cabinet decals?

Did a playfield protector and cliffies today. A lot of work but good peace of mind for the nicest game I own.

As a result of the protector and probably just me reinstalling the left ramp appropriately the balls are flying off of that thing like nobody's business. Is the guy still making those brass air ball guards for the left ramp?

Yea, mine fly off the mid section of the left ramp and land in the shire fairly often, which started after waxing it 2yrs ago. (using original flipper coils, not high power) The protector keeps the ball on the ramp down by the lanes, which is not my issue, but not sure about your situation.

One trick I found was slightly loosening the ramp screws so it has a bit of wobble to absorb the balls energy, especially the screw securing the middle section of the ramp.

PM ryan1234 and he can let you know. If it, I believe laserrific (can’t remember for sure) makes a nice alternative plastic with elven engraving.

This is only for the lower section though... not the mid section.

Try pinbits

Have you checked out post #4740 of this thread? I got these, they look great but haven’t been installed so can’t really say much yet other than that they look great

I got new cabinet artwork courtesy of LIORILLUSION. It looks 100x better than old.

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I have created custom cards, that I will put your name on and email 300dpi high res versions to print out for $5 to [email protected] on PayPal.

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Those look great!

For any interested, I just got an email from Mezel Mods, that the 2Niro Fire Rings for the original LOTR are back in stock!

https://mezelmods.com/collections/lord-of-the-rings-pinball-mods/products/lord-of-the-rings-pinball-fire-ring?variant=19875866804321

Thanks for that Pin_Guy. Wonder if there is a difference between the regular and the LE.

There is, the LE needs a different wiring harness than the original.

So if you have an lotr limited the regular will not work?

You may be able to make it work but I don't know what the differences are.

The only thing I can say for sure is when I purchased mine from Franck Niro, he told me that there is a different connector between the Standard and LE machines and needed to know what machine I had so he can send me the correct connector.

Thanks
Stupid me, I ordered it and then had to cancel (unless Mezel) can hook me up. Too bad, I like that mod.

I am in the process of stripping down my LOTR playfield. One of the things that has always bugged me is when the ball is shot up to The Path of the Dead, the ball sometimes slams into the cabinet wall.

Does anyone have a fix for this?

I was thinking of adding two posts in this area, but I need to purchase plastic posts. For now, this is what I am planning on doing - not particularly elegant. I also don’t like putting sideways pressure on those relatively delicate plastic pieces.

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This seems to work, but I don’t like the look - although not as terrible as the other.

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I just added an identical clear plastic post right between the other two, looks factory and solved the problem.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club/page/98#post-5218896

It's really small and you don't even notice it when you're standing in front of the machine. They're super cheap and you can find them at Home Depot / Lowes.

Yes, you can custom bend a piece of piano wire to fill the gap and it will match the original wire, I did something similar to keep balls from the VUK from falling off the POTD. I didn't extend it to the area you are talking about as it never bothered me.

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I'm interested in getting this as well as the mount doom mod but $100 seems a little excessive to me. What all is involved in the mod that brings the cost that high?