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.

LEGO Lord of the Rings News: LEGO Gollum Poster, LOTR Minifigs Revealed
Yet another awesome minifig reveal by LEGO for their Lord of the Rings line. Also a first look at the Orcs and Ringwraiths. So far, I like everything I've seen and can't wait to build these sets.

Threadless on the Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace
Your Xbox avatar can now wear Funkalicious, among other classic Threadless t-shirts. The circle is now complete.

Vortex, a USB keytar
As a musician and a geek, I approve of this keytar midi controller, even though half of the fun of keytars is standing up and looking like a dork in front of a lot of people, not just your computer.

Hyrulecraft, a complete Minecraft replica of Ocarina of Time, is now live
The lengths that geeks are willing to go these days to create awesome things astounds me.

Nickelodeon Universe Announces New TMNT Thrill Ride
Looks like I'll be going to the Mall of America sometime this year. This ride sounds great! Also, note the appearance of Shredder in this mockup. He looks kind of cool!

RetroBit RetroDuo Portable takes your SNES games on the go, $20 adapters bring NES and Genesis as well | The Verge
Looks like the portable SNES that Tim linked to around the holidays has some (much cheaper) competition.

The 48-hour, rapid game development event known as Ludum Dare is wrapping up its twenty-second event this weekend. Ludum Dare, from the latin phrase “to give a game,” is a video game development competition started by Geoff Howland in 2002. Participants must produce a game from scratch in just two days time. Each entry must come from a single person and tie into the event’s theme. The theme of the most recent competition which ends on Sunday is “Alone.”

Entries can be found on Ludum Dare’s website. There are over 700 submissions in the main competition. You can also follow along with the #LD48 hash tag on Twitter. Contestants come from all walks, from students to professionals. While all entries in the 48-hour event are open source, there’s also a 72-hour “Jam” competition where contestants can keep their source code private. The Jam competition isn’t as strict and even allows team creations.

Minecraft founder Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch, made a game called Minicraft. It looks like a NES or Gameboy Advance version of his wildly successful world-building game. Like many of the submissions, you can play his Java-based game online. Others have to be downloaded to be enjoyed.

Another notable entry comes from Shaun Inman who made Sinkhole, a HTML5 game. Inman previously developed the popular iOS game The Last Rocket. Rusty Moyher of Box Cat game fame, made an interesting little game called Audire. It’s a Flash-based game so don’t try playing this one on your iPhone or iPad.

While this is my first brush with Ludum Dare, I’m excited to experience the other submissions and see who will be championed winner. The 48-hour competitions happen three times a year. The next event will be held in April.

Surely you know what Minecraft is. The game maintains a fascinating position as global cultural phenomenon while simultaneously keeping its underground status.

For the uninitiated, Minecraft is a game where you build things. It’s also a game where you are preyed upon by zombies and scary spiders. Part Lego, part horror film, it’s an addictive “little” indie game that has over 4.6 million registered users. Over one million of these users have paid about $20 each to participate. Oh yeah, and it’s existed as a playable Alpha for most of its life.

Filmmakers at 2 Player Productions have begun work on a documentary about Mojang, the Minecraft: The Story of Mojangcompany Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson formed to further development of the game. They’ve released a 20-minute proof-of-concept to help fund the film’s completion.

There’s a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $150,000 necessary to complete the documentary. At the time of this writing, they’re over half way to being fully funded. It’s inevitable that they’ll get there before the Mar. 26 deadline but if you act now, you can be a part of this special project. There are special rewards available to backers at different contribution levels.

Check out their Kickstarter page for more info. If their sample video is any indication, this is going to be a very compelling film worthy of your time—and contribution.