I made so many Lord of the Rings minifigs that I have to split them into two posts. Minifigs of Middle Earth was the first, and you’re reading the second, rather darker post.

The Dark Lord Sauron:

Sauron’s Ringwraiths, or Nazgul:

Saruman’s Uruk-Hai:

A bunch of motley goblins, or orcs:

Some evil men, the Haradrim:

A Haradrim oliphaunt-driver, and Grima Wormtongue:

And finally, Gollum:

Classic-Castler Jens (Schlimps on Brickshelf) presents another cool creation that uses rare-colored parts — a Nazgul, or Ringwraith, from The Lord of the Rings:

According to several members of my local LEGO club (SEALUG), rare-colored parts are likely the result of a quality control step in the manufacturing process known as a “color test.”

When The LEGO Company performs a color test, they create a limited run of a LEGO piece in a specific color to help determine what kinds of stresses the acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) can endure in that particular color. For example, a clear minifig was created some time ago, and the speculation at our recent meeting was that this better revealed the kinds of discoloration (due to friction or stress) that might occur where parts are joined together.

If you’re more familiar with the LEGO manufacturing process and I’ve gotten something wrong, feel free to correct me in a comment!

Cyin is never one to rely on standard minifig legs (as he showed with Radagast and Tom Bombadil). He demonstrates this again with his new Gandalf:

Here’s Gandalf with a cart full of fireworks: