Hey people! Since a few weeks, I'm the owner of my LotR, serial #178644. Traded my TAF for it and couldn't be happier. The game was clearly routed for years and needs a proper restoration. It works perfectly and looks pretty good, but needs love. I want to make the machine as beauitiful as I can, without spending thousands on it.

Right now, I'm in the process of obtaining replacement parts and some mods that I like. When I have everything I want, I'll start the restoration.

One of the first things I did was replacing the fluorescent tube in the backbox for a less bright led tube. What a difference. I hate the overexposed look that the original fluorescent tube gives to the translite. The led tube makes it look far more natural. Highly recommended!

IMG_20170826_014531.jpg

Hi guys!

I'm looking for a plastic set for my LOTR. Preferrably located in the EU, to save on shipping and custom charges. Not necessarily though.

Anybody who can help me out? Please send me a pm.

Thanks!

Thanks for your replies, guys! I just found exactly what I needed. A local pinhead sold me an incomplete set of regular NOS plastics and the set of thick plastics (Paths of the Dead, sword grip and Orthanc) for a fair price. Luckily, most of what I needed is there. Apart from the Arwen plastic, which I will get from Retro Refurbs.

I'm happy that I got what I was looking for. My machine as it sits has a combined mess of broken original plastics and bad reproductions. A previous owner did lots of damage to the old ones by tightening their screws way too fast.

As a gesture, the seller also sent me the old plastics that he replaced for NOS ones on his own machine. So, apart from the Arwen plastic, I now basically have a complete extra set of plastics.

This gives me the chance to add extra Play Along figures on some plastics and still have a spare of every plastic I attach them to. My plan is to:
- add Gimli, Boromir and Legolas figures to complete the Fellowship;
- add the Army of the Dead figures to the Paths of the Dead;
- enhance the Nazgul scene on top of the sword ramp by adding 2 extra Ringwraiths.

I'll post some pictures once these mods are done.

Oooh, shiny! Those cabinet decals look much brighter than the originals. I like it! Can you verify if they are indeed brighter? Are those the Retro Refurbs decals?

Ok, I guess my love for this game is getting a bit crazy. I just bought a NOS playfield for my LOTR. Purely because I got excited for the fact that I saw one available. Complete impulse purchase. First NOS playfield I ever bought. It wasn't cheap, and I'm not a millionaire. And the playfield in my LOTR isn't even in very bad shape or anything.

I think I might need help...

So good to hear I'm not the only one with this illness... We could start our own subgroup. LOTR Anonymous. I'm Jasper. (Hi Jasper) This is my story. I started out as *just* a pinball nerd... At some point, I bought my own Lord of the Rings pinball machine. That's where things started to go downhill, and fast. Before I knew it, I became medieval weaponry collecting nerd and a miniature toy collecting nerd as well. The only difference is that I do take the stuff out of the box.

To be fair though, that LOTR playfield just seems empty without the full Fellowship on it. It's just common sense to add Legolas, Gimli and Boromir. But then, to compete with all these good guys, you need bad guys, right? So, I added extra Ringwraiths. Of course you need the Army of the Dead to sit on the Path of the Dead, but that's a work in progress on my machine. To finish things off, I thought I needed Narsil, the Sword of the King to hang next to my machine. Why? I don't have the slightest idea. To be able to protect the pin from other nerds, I guess.

And... so yeah, now a NOS playfield as well. And I'm thinking about new cabinet decals. Where does this end?

Legolas shooting the Balrog
Gimli and Boromir sneaking up to the Ringwraiths
Narsil...
...protecting the pinball machine

D´OH!

You´re right though. I will definitely get a ColorDMD for the game at some point. Not completely sold on Pinsound yet.

I just received my NOS playfield from BAA. Yay!

After unpacking it, it struck me how totally different this playfield looks from the one inside my machine. I mean, I know there are differences in quality for the playfields of this title, but dayum, to me, this is shocking!

Luckily, the NOS playfield looks much better than my original one. It's not perfect, but the color palette is much richer. Graphics are a lot nicer and less 'hard'. The playfield inside my machine has this green hue over the graphics, which the NOS one does not have. And Gandalf... well, see for yourself.

Of the following pictures, every first picture is the playfield that's inside my machine. Every second picture is the NOS playfield. All pictures were taken in similar lighting conditions. They were not edited, except for size.

original
NOS

original
NOS

original
NOS

original (wtf?!)
NOS

Interesting. Will you post your findings here?

Also: When you bought your playfield at BAA, did you choose their 'Playfield Assurance Option'? If yes, what did they do for you?

Thanks for the info! Very curious what your playfield looks like.

I didn't use the service, but it did get me curious. Guess I got lucky with what I got.

Very interesting! Did you find one with a perfect playfield?

Playfield quality could indeed have something to do with build date. However, I'm not sold on that idea. I think it might be more random than that. Case in point: the original Pinball News post from when LOTR just came out.

This is one of the very first pictures of a LOTR; the playfield of the first test game they had in Chicago, taken from http://www.pinballnews.com/games/lotr/index4.html. It obviously has the green hue on it, especially noticable in Merry's blouse, Gandalf's beard and Legolas' hair.
7 (resized).jpg

The playfield of the sample game that Pinball News tested, did not have the green hue. This game might have left the production belt a bit earlier than the test game, though. It still has the prototype/sample stickers on the apron, where the test game had the production stickers. http://www.pinballnews.com/games/lotr/index5.html
IMG_0482 (resized).jpg

Last but not least, the game on Stern's press release photo also seems to have a pretty nice playfield, without any hue.
playfield (resized).jpg

They're waiting for you to do it.

But seriously: I reckon the big differences in playfield quality that plague this title make it virtually impossible to produce one fitting decal that looks good on all LOTRs.

Hi fellow owners! I'm looking for a NOS or good used right ramp (515-7319-00-80) for my game. Please shoot me a PM if you can help me. Much appreciated!

https://www.mailboxde.com/

I've used their service twice in the past few months, for sellers that don't ship internationally. Both were positive experiences.

Good luck!

You know you're playing too much LOTR when...

...you're fully focused on completing Gandalf vs Saruman, inadvertently shoot the middle lane, Gandalf promises you to 'help you bear this burden' and you find yourself screaming out 'Don't you have something better to do?!'.

Priorities, Gandalf. Sheesh.