I agree it's my favorite pin too. I've owned upwards of twenty-five pins over the years and played many more. Currently there's six in my game room at home and I have a Hobbit Smaug Gold SE on order. I don't need to say why it's my favorite all time pin as you've pretty much summed up my feelings about it so I won't waste time explaining.
As far as problems out of the box I did have to adjust the height of the drop target and one flipper coil came loose. Other than that it's been rock solid.
If you are so inclined and want to make the pin even more special and more 'you' there's plenty of 'mods' available on the internet to purchase. I added castle walls (Back Alley Creations), lighted winkie guard drop target kit (Mezel Mods), Munchkin 'Cliffy' protector, lollypop targets (JJP), had the play field protector factory installed and on order the Throne Room Fire Pots (also Mezel Mods). These additions to my ECLE make it more 'mine' if you understand. I even enjoy just looking at it...D'oh!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!