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.

ALF Movie in the Works? Maybe | /Film
For one reason or another, I haven’t written about Alf much on the site, but I love Alf. I still watch it occasionally and find it to be pretty funny still, and I’ve been patiently waiting until Gordon Shumway makes his way to the big screen. Plus, I’ve been wondering what Paul Fusco has been up to since the Alf days. I’d go see an Alf movie. Would you?

How Does THE DARK KNIGHT RISES End and Where Will BATMAN Begin Again?
I agree, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Batman dies at the end of TDKR. Think about it, Nolan’s Batman seems like a temporary hero, not a long term solution to Gotham’s problems. They’ve been marketing TDKR with phrases like The Epic Conclusion and The Legend Ends, almost like they’re preparing audiences for the possibility.

3D Simpsons Short Starring Maggie Simpson In Front Of “Ice Age 4″
I have no interest in seeing an Ice Age movie again, but seeing a Simpsons short film might be worth the price of admission. I’m still bummed I didn’t get to see the Simpsons Movie on the big screen, but seeing a short might help numb the pain.

Pixar’s “The Avengers”
What the Avengers would look like if they were Pixar characters. Some interesting choices here, but you have to love Sully as Hulk.

You gotta hurry and watch this silent film parody of the mega popular film The Avengers. Don’t hesitate as it includes actual footage of the film surely acquired by illegal means. In other words, it’s inevitable that YouTube will yank it from the site citing Marvel’s copyright.

But if you haven’t yet seen Joss Whedon’s super superhero movie, do not watch this video. It spoils one of the most enjoyable scenes from the film. It’s a scene so good that you absolutely do not want it tarnished.

The video was apparently produced by R3Load, a site promising “daily online refreshments.” They’ve also distilled Whedon’s two-plus-hour movie down to a campy, 4-minute silent film. But this follow-up is a lot less satisfying.

Calvin and Hobbes mashups are becoming quite the rage these days. Bill Watterson’s classic comic strip has such a great art style and lends itself so well to depictions of Pop Culture bromance. This shirt entitled Halfling and Wizard went up for sale today on Threadless, and it’s probably my favorite Calvin and Hobbes mashup yet. Frodo looks so cute in Watterson’s style, as does everyone’s favorite wizard, Gandalf.

This kind of makes me want to see a Empire-inspired, Luke and Yoda in the style of Calvin and Hobbes, but I don’t know how cute Yoda would look as Calvin. Maybe Cool Johnny can tackle that one next.

You can buy the shirt at Threadless and a tiny bit will come back to us, letting us buy toys and goof off and such.

Hey look, new LEGO collectable minifigures! Cool, a new boxer! Ooh, and a weightlifter…wait a second, this isn’t a new series of LEGO’s Minifigures line. Damn, it’s just a special set of athletic minifigs celebrating the London 2012 Games, and it’s only available in the UK.

Yup, that’s LEGO’s new 8909 Team GB LEGO set, available this summer wherever English people buy LEGOs.

I just hope this means LEGO isn’t completely done with making collectable minifigures after Series 7, like we had previously heard.

I have very little restraint when it comes to anything LEGO Star Wars. I try my best to resist the urge to buy them all. If there’s a set on sale for as little as 10% off, I rationalize it as a perfect opportunity to indulge myself.

If I saw a display like this in a store, well… Money would spontaneously fly out of my wallet. It wouldn’t be my fault. The display made me do it. Lucky for my mortgage payment, this display with holographic animation effects is in Norway.

Watch this captivating video and decide yourself if you could withstand firepower of that magnitude. I bet not.

I love Marvel Comics characters with every ounce of my being. But that doesn’t mean I’m opposed to a little parody. This animated short by Junaid Chundrigar is a damn-near-perfect send-up of all the classic Marvel characters.

After you’ve watched — and thoroughly enjoyed — this little cartoon, check out his site at Imajunation.com. This Netherlands native is a very talented guy.

Oh, and just like the big screen films, stick around for a short little bonus scene after the video’s credits.

Just recently I dug out my Tub-O-Toys™ that had been in storage for the past three years or so, and among all the old action figures and vehicles I found a surprise. I had two Mighty World figures still in their package that I had picked up at Target with the intention of posting here. I had never heard of Mighty World toys, and I was intrigued by the Playmobil-like generalness of their themes and the highly detailed, almost wooden appearance of their sculpts.

Ok, so the real reason I bought these was because they had a Cat Burglar figure, and I’ve always thought children’s toys of vagrants and criminals is such a funny concept.

Mighty World was pretty new when I picked these toys up, and I haven’t seen them in stores for a while. You can still buy them online but it looks like the line failed for the most part. Like Playmobil, they had a lot of everyday people and occupations represented by their figures and playsets. Police, construction workers, outdoorsy adventure-types, and of course Cat Burglars.

I knew I had to have Cary the Cat Burglar when I saw him, but I needed him to have a partner in crime or arch enemy, and since it wouldn’t make sense for a firefighter or a baker to play that role, I picked up Ramon the S.W.A.T. Officer. He had a gun.

Cary the Cat Burglar

The little guy that caught my attention was Cary the Cat Burglar. He’s dressed to kill steal things and comes complete with a big duffle-bag, a few white bags, and a flashlight. Unfortunately, the white bags do not have money signs on them. I like to think his duffle-bag is filled with money and/or drugs, and his white bags contain all the weapons they somehow forgot to include as accessories. I mean come on, the Mighty World Kayaker dude comes with a pistol.

The bio on his action figure card paints a surprisingly noble picture:

He leaves no fingerprints, no DNA, and never triggers an alarm. No one knows his true identity. Cloaked in the age-old mystique of the gentlemen jewel thief, he has proven to be quite a slippery fella for law enforcement. His elaborate heists are legendary. Will the long arm of he law ever catch up to him?

I want to have lunch with this guy. He sounds awesome. I bet under that mask he has a pencil mustache, and in his spare time likes to watch old movies and sip vintage scotch. He probably just steals jewels to fund his philanthropy.

I could sit here forever and make up a fake history for Mighty Town and how the government there is corrupt, but at the end of the day it’s actually kind of cooler knowing that they just wanted to make a criminal toy for ages four and up. Oddly enough, Cary is nowhere to be found on their website.

Ramon the S.W.A.T. Officer

When I bought these toys I thought I was buying a police officer, but it turns out Mighty Town is dangerous enough to warrant a S.W.A.T. team. But Ramon isn’t dressed in the typical black outfit with riot gear, he’s sporting a blue suit with a ton of pockets and places to keep things and sunglasses and removable hair.

Oh, and a rifle that for some reason he can only carry like a briefcase.

The sculpt on Ramon is pretty detailed and awesome, even down to the frustrating dual pistols sculpted into his holsters. Attention toy companies: sculpted guns in sculpted holsters are zero fun. Ramon also comes with the same flashlight, which looks a lot like a lightsaber handle, so if you’re as bored as me you can imagine Ramon and Cary getting into it Jedi-style.

Let’s find out a bit more about Ramon:

After serving the Mighty Town Police Department for a couple of years, Ramon volunteered to undergo months of rigorous tactical and intense physical training to become a full fledged S.W.A.T. officer. He is now part of a highly skilled and well-equipped elite unit keeping Mighty Town safe.

I’m starting to think Cary the Cat Burglar is not a very accurate representation of the criminal activity in Mighty Town.

Ramon's Sculpt Details

I would have been a bit bothered by how these toys wouldn’t place nicely with my 6″ action figures, and would in fact look like Hobbits in comparison, but I still would have played with them. I’m actually kind of bummed I didn’t get any more of these. It’d be pretty cool to have a whole Hobbit-sized police force and military for a big Hulk figure to throw around and what-not.

Did any of you Geek Dads and Geek Moms every get these for your kids? If so, did they like them? Bonus points if you got them Cary the Cat Burglar.

If you want to pick up some Mighty World toys ebay is your best bet, but I’ve seen some on Amazon too.

I wish I could find new toys hiding around my house more often.

Alex Deligiannis is a friend of the site, having designed our awesome Sasquatch, the logo for our Bubble Pipe Podcast Network, and generally being a cool dude. Recently Alex started posting one sketch a day on Instagram, and I knew right away I had to post another Instagram Roundup to show off some of his art.

He got my attention with some TMNT sketches, including badass new versions of Bebop and Rocksteady. I asked if he’d ever drawn Leatherhead, and he came through in one of his sketches soon after. I love checking Instagram and finding a new sketch every day, and you should follow @AlexDeligiannis or check out the hashtag #DeliDoodle to follow his progress.

He’s had series of Mario, TMNT, Street Fighter, and Avengers sketches, and they’re all awesome. He’s still pretty early in the project, and there’s months of great art to look forward to. You can follow Alex on Instagram, Twitter, or on his blog.

I’m jealous of kids today. I mean, I’m a kid at heart and I have no qualms spending my time watching cartoons, buying toys, and blogging about said cartoons and toys, but to be a kid right now in the age of iPads and Angry Birds and actual Avengers movies would be pretty awesome. I got bored with storybooks pretty quickly when I was little, and I’m sure flipping through the app equivalent of a storybook on an iPad would have kept my attention at least a little bit longer.

Like the Spider-man origin story app Rob reviewed a few months ago, Disney and Marvel have released two Avengers storybooks on iOS devices to coincide with the movie, and they were kind enough to send me some download codes so I could take a look. Avengers Origins: Assemble! and Avengers Origins: Hulk are both available for the iPhone and iPad.

Avengers Origins: Assemble

The awkwardly named Avengers Origins: Assemble! gives kids one version of how the Avengers all got together. It focuses on Captain America getting frozen in the ice and the Avengers finding him a few decades later. The line-up used in this story contains Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp, and the threat is non other than Namor himself. I’ve never understood Namor very much (read: casual comics fan), and this app actually taught me something.

Stan Lee narrates both of these stories and it’s great hearing him read. His voice is as iconic as his face, moustache, and sunglasses, and hearing him read about his heroes is a blast. I’m not sure if kids appreciate an old man narrating their stories as much as older geeks, but I’d like to think they don’t mind.

The artwork in these storybooks is really great. They feature some limited animation, but nothing overly distracted from the art itself. The style is more painterly than kids will be use to seeing from cartoons and comic books, and fits perfectly in the storybook medium. There is a lot of interactivity to keeps kids interested, such as fending off angry Atlanteans.

Throughout the story kids can collect easter eggs that will unlock new features. I have to give props to Disney for adding a good deal of new content recently with an update to the app. They added in a few minigames, each with levels and achievement badges and upped the value of this app a great deal.

Like I said, I don’t have kids of my own yet, but if I had some that were too young to take to see The Avengers I would taunt them about how awesome it is definitely give them this app as an introduction to the team.

Avengers Origins: Hulk

Disney is probably very glad it released Avengers Origins: Hulk because of how insanely positive the reception to the character has been from The Avengers. I’m sure kids too young to go see the movie can feel Hulk fever right now, and this interactive storybook can certainly hold their interest for a while if that’s the case.

I will say that this app isn’t as fun as the Avengers story, and seems shorter. It also hasn’t been updated yet to include minigames, but, if you own both apps you can use Avengers Origins: Hulk to unlock the Hulk as a playable character in the other app. That being said, the art in this story is also great, and it’s narrated by Stan Lee.

Hulk offers the same opportunities for kids to collect easter eggs and unlock bonus content, and I assume Disney will be adding minigames to the app soon. The storybook is short and covers Banner’s exposure to the Gamma radiation that creates the Hulk, but the lack of villains sets this app back from the Avengers. Kids can tap away to break through a wall and throw a car, but I’m not sure either of those experiences would be very fun to replay.

If your kid is Hulk-crazy, this isn’t a bad way to spend four dollars. I enjoyed it for the art and narration, and I hope they continue to refine these apps and release more, because kids love superheroes from such an early age and these apps fill in nicely for more mature comic books.

You can buy Avengers Origins: Assemble! and Avengers Origins: Hulk from iTunes.

Are you a geek Mom or Dad? If so, let us know in the comments what your kids think of these kind of apps!

I can’t get enough of ‘The Other Guy’ from this summer’s blockbuster movie The Avengers, and now I’m glad I don’t yet own all the Avengers LEGO sets. Starting tomorrow, May 16th, if you spend $50 at LEGO Shop@Home this exclusive Hulk minifigure will be added to your cart for free. He won’t look as huge next to your other Avenger minifigs but he still looks pretty awesome. Now we just need a Ruffalo Bruce Banner minifig.

The promo lasts until May 31st or until LEGO runs out. Now might be a good time to pick up that LEGO Avengers Quinjet set.