/summon mniip {Criticism: replaces existing element instead of allocating a new one.}

Your LOBM replaces another element. Do you know how to allocate a new element? If not, you should use my Lua Element Tool to make boilerplate code. (Or read the wiki...)

tpt.update_func(tpt.el.lobm.id, tpt.el.bomb.id) 

Or something like that, you just have to copy bomb's update function over to LOBM

One sec, reviewing the wiki for how you WOULD do it...

EDIT: you can't do it like that. There should be a function to get the update func of an element.