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.

Throw a rock these days and you’ll hit a website that’s offering a “Geek Christmas Gift Guide”.  Usually, these are little more than a list of links to Amazon with uninspired ideas like Captain America on Blu-ray, a Batman graphic novel, and something having to do with Boba Fett.  Yawners.  So with that in mind, up until Christmas, we here at Top Hat Sasquatch are going to present a few focused posts highlighting a cool and unique item that would be a good gift for the geek in your life.  To kick things off, we’ll start with a subject that is near and dear to every nerd’s heart – robots.  More specifically, custom-made robots from My Robot Nation.
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I haven’t watched TV in years, but every once in a while a show comes along that I go out of my way to watch. In Bubble Pipe Theater terms, I make sure to digitally acquire every episode of the few shows that I’m interested in, and Adventure Time tops that list. It’s like Pendleton Ward created the show just for me, and didn’t put much thought into if anyone else would like it.

Every since I’ve been into Adventure Time, I’ve wanted toys, and now they’re finally available. I guess they’ve been out for a while now and I haven’t noticed. I don’t make it to toy stores as often as I’d like.

Well I’m impressed. I assumed that when/if Adventure Time toys came out, they would be lame, but these look awesome. The 10 inch deluxe Finn figure with interchangeable faces is particularly awesome. There’s a Jake to match (with Beemo!) and there are also smaller versions of the characters. The two-packs of PVC figures would make good desk buddies.

I think it’s safe to say there will be a lot of people rocking the 24 inch sword as part of their Halloween costumes this year.

The toys are made by Jazwares and are available online and in toy stores. I can’t wait to get my hands on these. What other Adventure Time toys would you like to see made? Besides a 10 inch deluxe Ice King figure (with drums!), I’d love to see a huge tree house playset. That would be totally math!

Welcome to the first of a new series here on Top Hat Sasquatch; Instagram Roundups. Most of us here on the ‘squatch are big Instagram fans. I’ve been using it literally since the first day it was available in the App Store, and I love it. It has a huge community (10 million users in less than a year), and an endless supply of photos tagged with anything you can imagine.

Today I was digging around in a box and found my old Fisher Price Little People Dog and snapped a photo and put it on Instagram. I tagged it, and suddenly had the urge to browse through other Little People photos, since those toys are such a big part of my nostalgia. Below is a roundup of some favorites (and the photo of my Dog).

We’ll be posting Instagram Roundups every so often, and if you have a suggestion for a topic let us know in the comments, and you can always tag your photos #TopHatSasquatch to get our attention.

Instagram Roundup header photo by zio Paolino