If you’ve been following me on Twitter, Pinterest, or around in the store lately you know I’m completely addicted to LEGO right now. 2012 is going to be a crazy huge year for the toy company, and a couple main reasons are the addition of the Lord of the Rings and Super Heroes lines. LEGO has been teasing us with posters of a few LOTR characters recently, but folks at the London ToyFair got some early shots of the new minifigures and they look amazing.

First off, I wish I could have LEGO Hobbit hair. It’s perfect. Second, Sam doesn’t quite look goofy enough, and Boromir looks a little odd. But you have to admit, seeing the Fellowship in minifigure form like that is pretty awesome.

Head over to FBTB for a smallish new glimpse at the Avengers. Who knew Captain America would translate to LEGO form so well?

Via From Bricks to Bothans

The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

How To Build the Best Lego X-Wing Ever
Gizmodo may not be good for much anymore, but I'm glad they posted Mike Psiaki's awesome LEGO X-Wing in November, because now he sent them a parts list and instructions for how he made his model. Most people agree his version looks better than the new 2012 LEGO X-Wing that comes out soon. What do you think?

LEGO Heroica: fun adventure gaming for kids
Over at BoingBoing they profiled one of the new LEGO games that I so often overlook at the store on purpose, and it actually sounds kind of awesome. It looks like Heroica is almost a gateway RPG for kids, and comes in sets that can all hook together to create one big board. Gweek reviewed the $15 Draida Bay set to high regard.

LEGO Lord of the Rings News: LEGO Aragorn Poster Revealed
Looks like LEGO will be unveiling all their LOTR characters via these cool posters. Can't wait to see the rest.

Rediscovered: Long-Lost Version of “The Hobbit” by Gene Deitch
Interesting find by the guys at Cartoon Brew; an animatic of a planned animated version of 'The Hobbit' by Gene Deitch, a veteran of Tom and Jerry shorts and other classic cartoons.

In today’s episode Tim and Tommy are joined by The Cult of LEGO co-author and BrickJournal founder Joe Meno. We discuss the new book, his awesome LEGO magazine, trips to Billund, Denmark, the joys of fan conventions, favorite LEGO themes, and much more.

The geek community has been in an uproar since Businessweek ran it’s cover story about LEGO’s new line for girls called LEGO Friends. The set is the next (and apparently, biggest) attempt by LEGO to cater towards girls, but something about the taller-and-unnecessarily-curvy minifigures is rubbing a lot of fans the wrong way. I’m with Amy of Media Macaroni on this one, I’m all for new brick colors and accessories, but these sets don’t look like they’re even focusing on the building aspect at all. They may as well be Polly Pocket sets.

I want to hear what this little girl has to say about LEGO Friends.

You guys are probably all familiar with Kickstarter, but did you know there is a LEGO equivalent currently in beta called Cuusoo? Over at the new site users can upload ideas for sets and if the project reachers 10,000 supporters, it will get an official review from a LEGO jury and consideration to be a real product. I first heard about it when the Minecraft idea reached it’s goal in 48 hours and got a little closer to becoming real.

Well, I haven’t kept up with a lot of the projects on there since then (most are not that great looking), but I found a jem while browsing the r/lego subreddit the other day. Cuusoo user mb_real uploaded a beautiful and ridiculously functional idea for a Modular Western Town, and I want it to become real even more than the Minecraft sets.

Each building is meant to be a stand-alone set, but can be combined to create a whole Western Town. I think LEGO should bring back it’s Western theme, and I can’t think of a better way than with something as awesome as this. Not only do the buildings look great on the outside, but they’re packed full of detail on the inside and look like a lot of fun to build and play with.

You can check out more photos at mb_real’s Flickr page, and you should sign up for Cuusoo and support the cause.