Hey guys -

I should be getting my LOTR on Sunday. Any stuff I should look at or adjust first thing to get started?

Thanks guys. The game comes with a new spinner I can install, as well as a new plastic ring scoop. I sort of want a color DMD at some point...Haven't seen that talked about much on this game.

I will purchase the upgraded coils and that post, thanks! What about the PotD mod? Is there a kit for that or can you make your own? Also, there is some wear at the back of the shire scoop from flipper huts. Is there a protector for that? Or maybe that's a fix I can do myself somehow?

Is there a picture of the rubber post fix by chance?

I don't intend to get that far anytime soon, but can you take a picture of your cooling setup? I may take this route.

Also, wasn't there a guy who did a custom PotD mod for considerably cheaper?

Per my email, I'd love to see pics of what I can expect to do to keep the coil fade down.

This is fantastic, thank you mate!

Congrats on completing TABA! I played a game the other day and made it to TABA for the first time. Honest to god, that's the best mode in pinball that I have ever played. A+

Complete all 6 ring modes, light mode start, shoot ring -> TABA time!

I meant start, not complete. My bad. I've gotten to TABA with zero Gifts of the Elves, haha.

I am (finally) about the join this club. I should hopefully have everything sorted out tomorrow or Thursday and my game will be headed my way. SO excited.

I have paid for an LOTR LE and it should be heading my way in the next week or two!

The only issue it has is that the sword lock acts up sometimes. So that will be my first order of business, but once that's sorted out, my quest for Valinor begins!

Thanks - it has been QUITE the journey.

What's Jay's Mod?

I plan to do LEDs because I love the look of LEDs myself. And since mine is the LE, it won't have all the figures that the regular has...So I'll start buying little figures here and there off eBay (or generic fantasy figures from Target or something, ha).

Has anyone put together an LED list for this game? Mine should be here next Friday.

Hopefully you guys can help me out.

I am getting a stock LE next week. I am going through a list of things I NEED to pick up:

- Rubbers (Black or white? Also, I am looking at the manual and see 37~7/16" rings? Do I need that many?)
- Cliffy protectors (should I get Cliffy sleeves, or do rubber sleeves work better?)
- New pinballs (PBL seems to be out of their premium balls?)
- Shooter lane protector
- Coin door lock (game was routed and the lock appears to have been drilled out...Where do I get this?)

Want to pick up:

- I seem to remember some sort of protector made for the ball as it falls off the POTD?
- LEDs (eventually)
- Color DMD (one day...)
- Jay's Mod

Once the game arrives, I'll determine if I need to rebuild the flippers or not (he suggests that I should). If I do, does the LE like the upgraded coils? Also, from what the seller explained to me, once in a blue moon the balls get stuck on the sword lock. He suspects it could be either magnetized balls or a misadjusted microswitch. Is this a common issue that I can read up on somewhere?

And finally, any other little mods here or there I should add? I'm not looking to go TRON on it, so I'll pass on the lighted POTD kit for now. I also won't bother buying actual figures for a while. They're stupid expensive. Once I can find them for cheap, I may grab some.

Thanks for any tips guys. Looking VERY forward to this arriving!

The game is gorgeous. The only wear I saw is actually the gold lockdown. It's tarnished where you rest your hands during play. No big deal.

I'll look into the Arvin protector. Is the Pinbits set necessary? Also, where do you get the reinforced post at? And where can I buy the plastic diverter? Sorry for the silly questions...I'm mobile and will have to order that way, haha.

Also yes Razor - just searched my email and found it! I don't remember if you have LED OCD or not, but do you notice any ghosting with that list? I'm tempted to just send that list off and order your exact list, haha.

Is there a list of what I should look for?

Thanks so much! I'll start watching for these.

Regarding a flipper reubuild, should I just buy a rebuild kit from PBL and be done with it? I know it's a bit more expensive, but it's usually much simpler, ha.

I love supers on all my games. And I'll definitely get those decals. I love them, too.

Oh and what balls should I buy? I know the 2-ball DTR has a tendency to magnetize the balls. I can't find the PBL balls, so any other suggestions are welcome.

The only games I've played had mode start lit at the start of each ball as well. Normally, don't you need to collect 3 elf rings to light it?

Speaking of rings, what does collecting rings of men and dwarf rings do?

Waiting for me back in Indiana. I guess I'm officially part of the [LE] club!

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Double post

Thanks.

And I need to start reading up on various starts and approaches to making my way through the game. I won't be overdoing it right now, but at some point, I'll want to begin my "training" for Valinor.

Unrelated, I ended up buying a flipper rebuild kit off PBL. I'm going to use the existing coils and hope that the new kit will give me adequate flippers. I've heard various stories about the LE and it not running into fade. We'll see. Worst case, I buy the upgraded coils later on.

Question for you owners who have done a full teardown...How tough is LOTR? My only other full teardown was WCS94, and I can't imagine this game is harder than that.

I was about to order the pinbits protectors, but I noticed there's an LE set as well as a standard set. If I have the LE, do I need to get the LE set, or can I order the standard set?

Ah OK - so the footies you mentioned are for the LE figure mounting? I won't be SOL if I opt to mount figures later?

Got to plug in my LOTR LE over lunch! I'll be bringing it home from the office once the storms pass. The game is already full LED, which is pretty awesome. I only have to do a few tweaks to the bulbs/lighting.

Flippers need a rebuild. Game needs to be completely cleaned, but that's OK. I am going to disable the shaker because I don't really like how intense it is. New rubbers will be here soon. I also need to figure out what to do about the polish...It's tarnished in places, so I can either buy a brand new set of brass legs and lockdown (lolno), or buy a blank set and have it coated. OR just buy regular black and not care about it.

I also need to study everything to make sure nothing is out of place. I noticed a really weird sound issue right when I plunged the ball into the POTD skillshot (almost like a muffled/white noise thing), but I didn't play enough to verify what was up. We'll see.

Overall, I am SO excited. I have some work to do, but I got it for a really good price. 700 total plays on a routed LE seems good to me.

No, not yet. I only plugged it in to make sure everything worked. Could be more plays as a result of updated roms and such, but who knows. If I need to update things, I'll buy the chip and make it so. That resets plays, yes?

Cool - I'll check on everything tonight. The LED board for the rings is missing, so that's going to set me back ~$100, but it is what it is, ha. That information was NOT disclosed when I bought the game from Classicpinball.

Actually, Al offered to PayPal me the money to cover the cost of a replacement. Stand up dude.

I'm posting a video soon of what I believe to be the only issue. It's a sound problem...fuzzy/scratchy sound sometimes. Otherwise, I'm so excited to play this after a nice cleaning!

I tried to PM you what I paid, but PM's aren't working.

That said, if anyone here has ANY thoughts on the issue in this thread, you'd be amazing.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lotr-sound-issue-1#post-2510023

I've started my cleaning. Cliffy's are in the mail, new rubbers should be here next week, and my Pinbits set (for my delightful Arwen plastic and such) should also be here in the next few days. I will probably need to rebuild some additionally coil assemblies to make them 100%, but from my test plays (outside of the sound from hell) have been pretty amazing. Flippers make the ring shot fine, although I've noticed a few rejects that seem to be from the magnet turning on and "pushing" the ball away.

Is there any easy way to get the ring trough off without pulling the playfield? I really don't want to do that if I don't have to. :/

Fascinating....What do you support the playfield on onto the wood? With all the coils and motors and such sticking below?

Hey guys - got another question.

How important is the plastic on the Shire VUK? Mine is broken and I don't feel like buying a new set. I may make my own when I try and make my own slings, but if it's not a major "must have" plastic, I'm not going to bother.

So my game is back together! Only a few things to do!

1) Flipper rebuild because it was routed.
2) The top right POTD switch doesn't work, so I'm guessing I just need to replace it.
3) Sound issue is still present...I replaced all 5 sound ROMS. No fuzzy white noise anymore, but now the music will randomly drop out. It seems to be after a switch is hit, but no switch in particular.

Once that's done, I need to replace a few bulbs and the game will be 100%!

Sorry to double post, but can someone take some pictures of inside their backbox for me? Particularly of the sound board area? I want to make sure everything looks good on connections while I try and track down my audio issue...

It drops, dips, spikes, white noise pops, etc. ROMS should be good, but SOMETHING is wrong. I guess it could be the speakers? I don't know. Trying to diagnose it today.

Thanks. Mine is a lot messier looking than yours, but everything seems to be in order.

I did shoot a video of my sound issues.

Also, is anyone else's magnet really loud? And do you notice your fuses popping on and off again a lot? My Balrog motor works good, but sometimes has a hard time starting. I've also managed to bump it out of place from a ball hitting it while not engaged. I imagine I just need to get in and tighten some stuff?

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I should have updated - the game is playing 100% now. Just took a little tinkering to get it where I needed it to be!

Yeah, check switches 17, 18, and 19. Make sure those are all good.

https://www.ipdb.org/files/4858/Stern_2003_The_Lord_of_the_Rings_English_Manual_complete.pdf

I'm sure you've bookmarked this already, but if not...Keep this on hand. I was looking to see if there were adjustments for that lock mech (see page 91 of the linked manual). I didn't see any, but I don't own an LOTR at the moment. Someone else may be able to see if there's a setting in the feature adjustment section or not.