I hope you all are into LEGO in a big way, because my love for the plastic bricks has come back with a vengeance lately, and I expect to be fully obsessed in 2012. As you heard in episode 10 of Bubble Pipe Theater, LEGO goes hand-in-hand with Christmas in my book, and so I thought it would be a great fit for our latest Instagram Roundup.

With two Advent Calenders out this year (regular flavor and a Star Wars version), I knew there would be plenty of Christmas LEGO goodness spread around Instagram. I got the Star Wars calendar for my nieces for Christmas, and today was the day that the Santa Yoda minifig was unveiled. I hope that set goes on sale after Christmas because I wouldn’t mind having a Santa Yoda for myself.

Today’s Instagram Roundup featured photos by steviebay1, mymeltingbrain, hosshina, mattapp, jijipunch, y_yuki, victoriiakate, ndangwp, and my sister patternpatti.

Have an idea for an Instagram Roundup? Tag your photo with #tophatsasquatch and we’ll see it!

Time is running out to order your holiday gifts online so they arrive by Christmas. But, honestly, who are we kidding? This is just an excuse to showcase some cool Nintendo gear you can actually buy for yourself. These picks will serve as a perfect Yuletide diversion.

Nintendo Geek Gift Guide

Celebrate the Mario’s 25th anniversary with the Super Mario All-Stars collection. This single Wii disc brings together Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s a reissue of the All-Stars set made available in 1993 for the NES except with updated graphics and sound. There’s also a CD soundtrack and 32-page book on the history of Super Mario. $50.00 is a small price to pay for some of the best-ever video games.

NES a little too old for you? Try the amazing Supaboy from Hyperkin that shrinks down the Super Nintendo Entertainment System console to the size of a controller. It features a 3.5-inch LCD screen and rechargeable battery for hours of mobile game play. Even better, you can hook it up to a TV and connect two SNES controllers for big-screen play. Alas, it doesn’t come with any cartridge but you can take your pick in the game section of many used media retailers. Supaboy is a steal at just $100.

Need some quiet time around the holiday? Try Jeff Ryan’s book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Get the history of Japan’s biggest game company and it’s U.S. invasion. We even discussed it on an episode of our podcast.

Just in time for Christmas, our good friend Alex Deligiannis created a holiday version of our logo for Top Hat Santa Hat Sasquatch. He’s hanging out up at the top of the site for the next few days, but I thought I would also whip up some wallpapers in case any of you wanted to deck your halls with a cute, furry sasquatch. I tried to make sure I covered the most popular desktop and mobile wallpaper sizes, but if I missed one let me know.

• 1920 x 1080
• 1366 x 768
• 1280 x 800
• 1024 x 768
• 320 x 480 (iPhone)

We’ve got a lot of Christmas content coming over the next week or so, including a holiday episode of Bubble Pipe Theater, so stay tuned!

I love art. I love Star Wars. I really love free stuff. There’s a good chance you do as well. Here’s how to get your very own Star Wars-themed copy of ImagineFX, the magazine for fantasy and sci-fi digital art.

If you’ve upgraded your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to the latest iOS 5, you have access to Apple’s Newsstand app which gives you instant access to thousands of periodicals. Launch the app on your device and head to the store section. Search for “ImagineFX” and get their free magazine app. (Alternatively, you can go to the iTunes Store and do the same thing.) After you’ve installed the ImagineFX app, you can go to their store of back issues to download a bunch of recent magazines for $6.99 each.

To celebrate the launch of Newstand, you can also grab their October 2011 issue free for a limited time. This is the impressive, Star Wars-themed issue filled with great visuals from the legendary franchise. There’s even a tutorial that teaches you how to draw a very menacing Darth Maul.

There’s no telling how long this offer will last so download it today.

It’s Muppet Week here on Top Hat Sasquatch and I thought it would be a great time to publish the second installation in our series of Instagram Roundups since everyone around the world is getting excited about The Muppets again.

I’m sure there will be plenty more images of The Muppets showing up after this week when the new movie comes out. I know my followers will probably be tired of seeing my Muppet-related images in their feed, but that’s the risk you take when you follow me.

Have any ideas for the next Instagram Roundup? Tag your photo #TopHatSasquatch and we’ll see it!

Today’s Instagram Roundup featured photos by junelims, secretlyloud, real_robnice, atgera, npyskater, leocke, kelan18, _wizlosophy, and me, tommyday.

Instagram Roundup header photo by zio Paolino

This week I got a mystery package in the mail from SpaceMonkeyX himself, Rob Lammle. I wasn’t sure what was inside, but I was pleasantly surprised to find some awesome buttons featuring our mascot! It turns out that Rob’s crafty wife Andrea made them herself, and they turned out great. I’ll be ordering more from her soon, so if you’d like your very own Top Hat Sasquatch button, stay tuned!

Site Update: There will be some exciting changes to the site next week, as well as a very cool interview coming up on Bubble Pipe Theater, so stay tuned for that too!

Now would be a good time to follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feed, and keep an eye out. Things are going to get interesting around here!

Video games have changed quite a bit over the years. Graphics have gotten from blocky to photo-realistic. The device used to control the on-screen action has changed quite a bit as well. Pop Chart Lab chronicles the game controller advances from 1972 to 2010 in poster form.

The sticks-and-buttons controllers introduced in the ’70s have given way to motion-based devices like the Wii remote and PlayStation Move. Pop Chart Lab’s design is tremendous but I’d like to see at least a nod to the latest evolution—the controller-less Xbox Kinect.

Slide on over to PCL to see the full poster and buy your own 24 x 36″ copy.

Via Rampaged Reality

Fellow guitar players: are you worried about how you’ll carry your 6-string come Halloween when you’re sporting your best Captain America: The First Avenger costume? I know I am. Luckily Whipping Post Leather has us covered.

Their line of leather guitar cases are insanely expensive and remind me of the the upcoming leather-and-pouch-covered superhero film. The case above retails for $825, but it doesn’t look like a hard case. That’s a lot of dough for the equivalent of a fancy gig bag.

Via Uncrate

Cupcakes are one of life’s most perfect substances. No one can pass up a delicious cupcake topped with a glob of sweet icing. On the other hand, I would have to give pause before sinking my teeth into these Muppet-themed creations by Cupcake Occasions. The UK-based baker served up cakes topped with everyone’s favorite Muppet characters.

These are such a work of art I don’t think I could bring myself to destroy it by biting into it. Unless perhaps the Miss Piggy ones taste like bacon.

Via The Daily What via Film School Rejects