The pumpkin patch held many secrets this year--secrets such as LOLWUT!?

Halloween is almost here!

We're saving our celebration until Monday, but we know many of you will be parading around in costumes and putting the finishing touches on pumpkins this weekend. To help you with the latter, below are our top 2011 template entries--all 60 of them! The bonus 18 templates from past years come free.

We'll announce our winners soon, and whether you carve from these templates or not, we hope you'll tweet photos of your carved masterpieces to @thinkgeek or post them to our Facebook wall! That goes double for your geeky costumes. We'd love to see your work and we'll share our favorites with our followers. Sharing is scaring!

Oh, and we've partnered with a subreddit Halloween carving contest. We've pitched in some juicy gift certificates and we're hoping you'll enter your finished work of gourd art whether you use the templates below or not. Good luck!

We've chosen our winners!

Our masterpieces carved from your templates. Thanks, guys!

After much deliberation--and carving--we've selected our three winners for our 2011 template contest! The first place winner receives a $131 gift certificate and a Tauntaun Sleeping Bag, and two runners up each win a $31 gift certificate. Thanks to our more than 500 entrants for sharing their creativity with us this year--and those of you who showed us your finished pumpkins and costumes on Twitter and Facebook!

First place winner Fezzes are cool by Liz H. Clever, simple, and a crowd favorite.

Runner-up winner Pumpkin-chu by Toffeemama Expertly designed and adorable.

Runner-up winner River by Melisa C. We didn't get a chance to carve it, but did see it in some fan carvings!

Best of our 2011 entries

Click to download. Carve at will.

Turret by Loxley	Derpy is Angry by Patrick F.	Boba Fett by Fraken_Toaster25
Princess Peach by Katisme	Nightmare Before Christmas by Aeuriga	The Doctor's Angel by Elizabeth Z.
The Walking Dead by adswartz	Night of the Living Dead Zombie Girl by Zack M.	Lucky Cat by Toffeemama
Mathematical! by Vincent C.	Dark Defender by Taylor G.	NyanCat by @prox
Harmless little bunny by @biochemcrazy	Bazinga! by @lil_monmon	Ood by Sarah F.
Alien by Taylor G.	Fezzes are cool by Liz H.	High five by Toffeemama
Tauntaun by Nicole H.	It's Be-Bop Time by Justin B.	Piggy by g0t_bliss
Gory Tauntaun by animatedme	Space Invaders by Keegan C.	Abby Normal by breakinginsanity
Pac-Man-O-Lantern by robotnutt	Live long and prosper by @zenassassins	Trollface in 4 layers by Steven B.
Portal pumpkins by Duncan B.	Mojang by Blogum	Pumpkin-chu by Toffeemama
Sackboy by Dennis S.	Shockwave by SCG	Stormtrooper by AutumnNight
Metroid by Brdn L	Zerg by Phil S.	Cylon by Loxley
River by Melisa C.	Strongbad by Adrienne Ezell	Tux the Linux Pumpkin by pumpkinlady
Galactic Empire by AutumnNight	TARDIS by Melody W.	Gondor Calls for Aid by NeekerBreeker
Hello Kitty by Katie B.	Death Star by M B	Serenity logo by JordieK
Triforce by Makenna C.	QR code by Goldie R.	WoW by AutumnNight
Timmy by enzimmerman	LEGO head by @pixiekitty	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Diamond Girl
Trollface by @AndyGotPaws	Marvin by Laura M.	Steampunk heart by Vikki-Michelle F.
Wheatley by Tori M.	Minecraft Pumpkin by @TheHat2	Orange Lantern by Amanda L.
K-9 by @Suzaku7	Aperture by @GossamerAtara	Totoro by Kathy P.

Thanks to everyone who entered; there were many, many more templates entered than you see here, and we wish we had time to post them all.

Some of our favorites from 2009 & 2010

Want EVEN more pumpkin templates? Inconceivable. Below are some favorites, and you can even check out all of 2009 and 2010.

Android by Puckbyter	Adipose by @Suzaku7	Pac O'Lantern by @jacobwstewart
Minecraft Creeper by Michael Shad	NCC-1701 by maddoghoek	Star Wars by merit
King Boo, by Thejehosephat	My Best Friend by Cognitive	1UP Pumpkin by Jennifer Summe
Cthulhu by bobarobes	MST3K 3-D by littlebitocd	Proof your pumpkin has a heart by @CaptDNA
Infinite Pumpkins by Colin B.	Autobot by jhliu	Red Ring of Death by Nate S.
Wifi by backslashdave	d20 by backslashdave	Blue Sun by Shimo

ThinkGeek goes to the pumpkin patch!

An away team left TG HQ to obtain pumpkins for slaughter on Monday. This is their story.

Go ahead, try to count them all.

Pumpkins and fake guts and transformer stitches, ninjas and corgis and puppy dog liches, dancing ice clouds and conversations, these are a few of our favorite things!

Links from the Twitter and Facebook 'verse:

Don't stare too long, you might get a headache. (Seibertron)

Pumpkin battery. Enough said. (Instructables)

Pumpkin Keg!? Yes please! (Instructables)

WAKE UP! (Mikey Rots)

They would be cute. If they weren't busy drinking blood. (YouTube)

Please hammer, don't hurt 'em! (Washington Post)

Mmm, Guts. (No, really!) (Evil Mad Scientist)

Your Halloween decorations have just been blown out of the water. (YouTube)

This ninja would like to challenge you to a fight. (YouTube)

Punkin chunkin: It's never too early to learn. (YouTube)

Consider this inspiration. (villafanestudios)

Set your "AWW!" phasers to stun. (Buzzfeed)

Tim Gunn on Star Trek TOS and gender. AWESOME. (YouTube)

Apparently, the game is afoot. (BoingBoing)

Nature always stays weird. (Bad Astronomer's blog at Discover magazine)

No! Say it isn't so!? (The Register)

Well that's something you don't see every day. (Reddit)

Sure you can juggle Rubik's cubes, but can you solve them at the same time? (YouTube)

I vant to nom your kibble. (YouTube)

Zombie pet topiary. Srsly impressive. (SrslyCute)

Epic Auroras are happening right now. Look up!. (Discovery)

Braaaiiinsss? (Inhabitat)

We'll stop singing now, promise.

Yes. That is indeed a ninja-only exit. Well. Ninjas and anyone nimble enough to make it up there. So it's Hans's exit.

You might already know that the monkeys at ThinkGeek HQ are fans of informative signs. However, what you likely don't know is that we've got witty one liners and inside jokes plastered pretty much everywhere in this office. One day we decided that keeping all of this awesome to ourselves was a little selfish, so out came the camera.

Sad Keanu was plaguing HQ for about a month, popping up everywhere, depressing everyone with his hangdog expression. Even the coffee was not immune. Until one day they all started to disappear.

This is the only sad Keanu left. He's perched outside of Willie's office in his fancy tie-dye kitten shirt.

Totally Christian's fault.

Timmy! Nooooooooo!

I might not be looking for Lionel, but that sweater is fantastic.

Has anyone seen our unicorn, Sam?

...

Over by the customer service monkeys we find this odd creature. He looks...hungry.

It's been ten whole days since the last raptor incident!? Excellent! I'm sure it's perfectly safe to let down our guard.

AIYEE! Okay, time to set that counter back to zero. Again.

That's all for now. We'll leave you with the knowledge that somewhere at ThinkGeek HQ there is a barefoot monkey looking up wistfully and sighing sadly to themselves.

Thinking outside the gourd.

Today ThinkGeek is taking you to school. First, we ease you into the program with a review of the alphabet. Then we'll ask you to you name hundreds of famous geeky fictional faces. Lastly: Homework, sci-fi style. Good luck, students!

Addendum: For extra credit, detail the physics behind quantum levitation, and show your work!

Links from the Twitter and Facebook 'verse:

J is our favorite! (Flickr user Lishoffs)

The most intricate 8-bit post-it war EVER. (King5)

This might not be anti-gravity, but it IS amazing. (YouTube)

This baby monkey being bathed might just cute you to death. Be warned. (YouTube)

Which drink will I have? Oh, the one that is a waterfall of FIRE. (YouTube)

Wokka Wokka Wokka, Chomp Chomp Chomp. (Vimeo)

The world provides the noses, he just finds the Ninja Turtles hidden within. (teenagemutantninjanoses)

The DeLorean is the new Prius!? I think I just shed a tear of joy. (NPR)

Quantum levitation. The future is now. (YouTube)

Pumpkins? No. Even BETTER. (Page title is NSFW! Naughty language.) (Reddit)

First levitation, now tractor beams!? Where are they hiding the teleporters? We must know! (New Scientist)

The Literary Dalek game. (Pajiba)

Crayons! We need crayons! (Monsterbrains)

John Scalzi has a homework assignment for you! It might involve flamethrowers. If you want it to. (Film Critic)

Cheshire William Shatner recites Bohemian Rhapsody. It must be seen to be believed. (YouTube)

Breakfast, or dessert? Does it really matter? (Stasty)

The tiniest of Link cosplayers. Daaaaw! (Eric3Dee @ Deviantart)

Unnecessary censoring makes everything hilarious! (YouTube)

That's it! Pencils down, and hand your papers to the front.

Good news, iPad-enabled Geeks!

Timmy discovers caffeine.

ThinkGeek's catalog is now available via the Google Catalog app for the iPad! Now you can multitouch your way to shiny loot from the comfort of pretty much anywhere. (We recommend a hammock, or a comfy couch.)

Here's how to get in on this goodness:

• Access iTunes using your iPad and search for Google Catalogs, OR
• Click this handy link: Google Catalogs.
• Make with the downloading.
• Search under "Gifts" for the ThinkGeek catalog.
• Open the catalog. Marvel at the world of wonder that lay before you.

There are only a couple of things that you might have to look for. The descriptions of each item on the main catalog pages are kind of short, until you click a small tag icon next to an item. Check out a shiny example page here.

Clicking that tag icon takes you to a juicily detailed page from which you can launch yourself to our site if you want to make something yours, or bypass the main part of the catalog entirely and just surf from info-laden page to info-laden page using the icons at the bottom (though you'll miss out on the best pictures that way). Take a look at the fully detailed caffeinated goodness here.

That's all you need to know! Pretty simple, huh?

Let us know if you have any questions or see anything weird, but the catalog should be pretty intuitive for you iPad-enabled ones.

Who ya gonna call!? ...Abe Lincoln?

It's time to start planning awesome costumes and candy-acquisition strategy as Hallowe'en is only two weeks away! Before you panic, however, check out these distracting inspiring links. The internet is a rich source of mind-bogglingly weird ideas and we, of course, have found many of them for you.

(Anyone who dresses up as Abe Lincoln: Ghostbuster get serious points in our book!)

Links from the Twitter and Facebook 'verse:

The hover text didn't make us tear up. We're allergic to something. Yeah. That's it. (XKCD)

Feynman, on beauty. (YouTube)

Sometimes, Extreme Monkey Powered Awesomeness is surprisingly adorable. (Supercat's Instagram)

When you're feeling down, think of these bear cubs. (YouTube)

GLaDOS is mean because SOMEONE keeps trying to kill her. (YouTube)

Grognardy. Say it with us, folks! (Gamasutra)

More proof that nature will do what she wants, when she wants. Awesome and scary. (YouTube)

I would look wary too, if I were in such imminent danger of falling over. (Super Punch)

Creepily realistic death masks, a bargain at half the price! (Real-f.jp)

Oh Jimmy. You rogue. Never change. (Twitpic)

C3P0 is a dancing queen. We're not surprised. (YouTube)

Who ya gonna call? (Tauntr)

Self rescuing princess Leia and her Jedi companions. (Spot the ewok!) (anthonyherreradesigns)

Even though it's inaccurate, we can't help but imagine them with paintbrushes and sculpting tools. (i09)

Most. Delicious. Brains. Ever. And that's saying something! (Make)

WheeeeeBONK! (YouTube)

You can scramble it, solve it AND store stuff in it? Sold. We've got a new personal project. (Instructables)

Balloon TARDIS! (twistykristyballoontalk)

Excarvinate! EXCAAARVIIIINAAATE! (Evil Mad Scientist)

Presenting Real Steel II, attack of the kidbots! (YouTube)

That was a nice little journey. Now, pick up the sewing kit and soldering iron. These costumes wont make themselves!

Remember this meme? Yeah, it's off limits this year. Also: Nyan Cat.

We'll admit it: we love costumes. We stock all sorts of props and accoutrements that aren't necessarily Halloween-themed but which might complement your costume this year. Here are a few easy costumes you can throw together with some of our items:

Doomed Away Team

You and your friends can grab yourselves a Red Shirt and declare your expendability! Pair it with one of the Star Trek Insignia Pins for more realism. And one of you can hold up a sign that says, "Caution: Stand At Least 50 Ft. Back." For the females, the Star Trek Original Series T-Shirt Dress also comes in red, as do our Star Trek Uniform Creepers for the wee ones. And, of course, if you're a big group, you can fill out the ranks with our Star Trek TOS Tunic Tees, which we get straight from Roddenberry.

Shaun of the Dead Team Up

We recently picked up the officially-licensed Ed's "I Got Wood" Tee from Shaun of the Dead. You can pair it with Shaun's Foree Electric Uniform Shirt for a great two-person costume set. Throw in some Human Blood Caffeinated Energy Potion to stain your skin for realism. Note that if you get it on your clothing, it probably really will stain, so that's not such a great idea if you plan to wear the clothing again in non-zombie-hunting company. Also, you're on your own for the cricket bat.

Gryffindor Girl

Our bewitching juniors may want to grab the Gryffindor House Babydoll from Harry Potter. (We TRIED to get the other houses, but none of the other stores wanted them, so they were too expensive for our vendor to make. We'll keep trying. After all, T-Shirt Girl is a Ravenclaw.) Pair it with a Harry Potter Voice-Activated Wand Flashlight to light your wizard's way down the dark sidewalks, and Hermione's Time Turner if you want to turn back time and have Halloween again!

The Tenth Doctor

You know what's great about Halloween? It's right when the outside world starts to get cold. So getting a coat as part of a costume lets it double as your regular outerwear for the rest of the season. Our Doctor Who 10th Doctor's Coat from AbbyShot is for srs cosplayers. Pair it with a Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver of the 10th Doctor for authenticity or go with Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver LED Flashlights if your personal Timelord might be stumbling over his or her coat while Trick or Treating. Can't have that. Although we hear Timelords' treat bags are bigger on the inside....

Option E: None of the Above

If none of these options tickle your fancy, ThinkGeek still has plenty of costumes and accessories for you to check out. We even have cupcake holders that look like skulls and shot glasses with skulls in them if the party's at your place. Hopefully we have something that's just right for your spooky night!

Notice anything new about our website?

Last week we very sneakily launched a mobile version of ThinkGeek.com. Like tiny haptically-optimized ninjas, we brought the ease of browsing, searching, sharing, and acquiring ThinkGeeky awesomeness on your mobile phone.

Because we focused on key areas of the site, there still some parts not optimized for mobile browsers: the main account page, customer service pages, and Geek Points--which still accrue when you order, you just can't redeem them. Oh, and this blog. Isn't that hilarious.

Which is all to say that the ThinkGeek mobile site, just like our regular ol' desktop site, is a work in progress. Oddly enough, staring intensely at the screen and and repeating "ENHANCE" does not actually work, so as always, our designerds and codemonkeys are still plugging away and striving to make all your wildest mobile dreams come true. (But not the iPhone 5, sorry.)

In fact, we should embarrass monsieurs Matt Chwat and Guillaume Aubert, lead designerd and codemonkey on the project, both of whom put in lots of extracurricular hours to make mobile happen. They would love to hear your feedback on how you like the mobile site, so if you'd like to share your thoughts, shoot an email to replybot at thinkgeek.com.

In the meantime, we'll let them get back to making ThinkGeek even better for your shiny devices!

A young Cave Johnson. Full of fire. Spark. Grits.

Cave Johnson here, bringing you links from our perilous last week of internet surfing. As a surprise for our test subjects, we've hidden lasers and thermal deconstruction fields in the code. Enjoy the scientific process, folks!

Links from the Twitter and Facebook 'verse:

You moment of Zen for today. (YouTube)

William Shatner recording Iron Man. No really! (YouTube)

Tiny Panda pods, sleeping! Must. resist. Urge. To Cuddle. (Boing Boing)

Krangtatt hungers! (Daily picks and flicks)

The new iPhone is a lot bigger than we expected... (Dailymail)

Good news everyone! Zoidberg's been transformed into a warm hat and mittens! (Instructables)

Respect your elders. Especially when they rock the Imperial March. (YouTube)

It even has an R2 unit! (Makezine Blog)

Yeah, we kind of wish she were our mom, too. (Julie Gillrie Blogspot)

Are you having a sudden craving for a pudding pop? Or Pi? (Imgur)

Put on your headphones and watch this. You're welcome. (Vimeo)

Photo realistic portraits made from...thread!? (CayceZavaglia.com)

Angry Birds costumes? Do they come with eggs? Ooo, or a slingshot!? (Kotaku)

So. Busted. (YouTube)

This was our reaction when we first saw Empire, too. (YouTube)

Little Liam is introduced to the Dino wall for the first time! Awww! (The Karpuik's Flickr)

So heartwarming, so confusing. (I Heart Chaos)

The ocean was bioluminescent for a bit?? Nature is so awesome. (YouTube)

We've been opening doors incorrectly for SO LONG. *Hangs head* (YouTube)

Sure it's 21 minutes, but it's 21 minutes of awesome. (YouTube)

NOT CREEPY AT ALL. (YouTube)

14 words with no English translation. Awesome! (Mental Floss)

1.Pull popsicle stick fuse. 2. Pause. 3. OMG. (YouTube)

OmNom Delicious Wampa! (Geeks Are Sexy)

NooooNooooNooooNooooo! (YouTube)

Riddles are not Batman's strong point. (College Humor)

Congratulations, you've survived! You may now enjoy your cake.

It's time once again for the Great Geeky Pumpkin Template Contest!

This is when you give us an excuse to go to the pumpkin patch to pet goats and fly down the potato sack slide screaming like 5 year olds--er, I mean, this is when we very generously give you the chance to win a $131 ThinkGeek gift certificate for the best geeky pumpkin template in the land!

Enter your pumpkin template below between now and Thursday, 10/27/2011. We'll print out a pile of our favorites for our own pumpkin carving party on Monday, 10/31. That night, we'll announce our $131 & Tauntaun Sleeping Bag grand prize winner and 2 $31 runner-ups--along with pics of pumpkin gore and our finished masterpieces--just in time to prepare for the trick or treaters!

(Who are we kidding. We don't have trick or treaters in our office complex, but we'll be in full cosplay with a bucket of candy and d20s to share. Much more fun.)

NEW DEVELOPMENT: We're partnering with a subreddit Halloween carving contest! We've pitched in some juicy gift certificates and we're hoping you'll enter your finished work of gourd art whether you use the templates below or not. Good luck!

Update, 10/28: Best of our 2011 entries!

Turret by Loxley	Derpy is Angry by Patrick F.	Boba Fett by Fraken_Toaster25
Princess Peach by Katisme	Nightmare Before Christmas by Aeuriga	The Doctor's Angel by Elizabeth Z.
The Walking Dead by adswartz	Night of the Living Dead Zombie Girl by Zack M.	Lucky Cat by Toffeemama
Mathematical! by Vincent C.	Dark Defender by Taylor G.	NyanCat by @prox
Harmless little bunny by @biochemcrazy	Bazinga! by @lil_monmon	Ood by Sarah F.
Alien by Taylor G.	Fezzes are cool by Liz H.	High five by Toffeemama
Tauntaun by Nicole H.	It's Be-Bop Time by Justin B.	Piggy by g0t_bliss
Gory Tauntaun by animatedme	Space Invaders by Keegan C.	Abby Normal by breakinginsanity
Pac-Man-O-Lantern by robotnutt	Live long and prosper by @zenassassins	Trollface in 4 layers by Steven B.
Portal pumpkins by Duncan B.	Mojang by Blogum	Pumpkin-chu by Toffeemama
Sackboy by Dennis S.	Shockwave by SCG	Stormtrooper by AutumnNight
Metroid by Brdn L	Zerg by Phil S.	Cylon by Loxley
River by Melisa C.	Strongbad by Adrienne Ezell	Tux the Linux Pumpkin by pumpkinlady
Galactic Empire by AutumnNight	TARDIS by Melody W.	Gondor Calls for Aid by NeekerBreeker
Hello Kitty by Katie B.	Death Star by M B	Serenity logo by JordieK
Triforce by Makenna C.	QR code by Goldie R.	WoW by AutumnNight
Timmy by enzimmerman	LEGO head by @pixiekitty	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Diamond Girl
Trollface by @AndyGotPaws	Marvin by Laura M.	Steampunk heart by Vikki-Michelle F.
Wheatley by Tori M.	Minecraft Pumpkin by @TheHat2	Orange Lantern by Amanda L.
K-9 by @Suzaku7	Aperture by @GossamerAtara	Totoro by Kathy P.

Some of our favorites from 2010 & 2011

In case you don't want to wait for a fresh crop of templates, here are some oldies but goodies from years past. Click to download a template for your pumpkin!

Android by Puckbyter	Adipose by @Suzaku7	Pac O'Lantern by @jacobwstewart
Minecraft Creeper by Michael Shad	NCC-1701 by maddoghoek	Star Wars by merit
King Boo, by Thejehosephat	My Best Friend by Cognitive	1UP Pumpkin by Jennifer Summe
Cthulhu by bobarobes	MST3K 3-D by littlebitocd	Proof your pumpkin has a heart by @CaptDNA
Infinite Pumpkins by Colin B.	Autobot by jhliu	Red Ring of Death by Nate S.
Wifi by backslashdave	d20 by backslashdave	Blue Sun by Shimo

Enter your Great Geeky Pumpkin Template

ENTRY PERIOD HAS CLOSED!

Think you could design a better iCADE skin than us?

No, really, we want to know.

Later this month we're going to officially launch iCADE skins as a new iCADE accessory. Our artists have already designed a handful, but we wanted to crowd source the last one in the collection. We want to see what smart masses like yourself can cook up.

Why should you do this (aside from wanting to rise to the challenge)? If we choose your design, we'll not only produce it, but you'll win a new iCADE with your skin, a $500 gift certificate, and fifteen minutes of internet fame in the form of credit on ThinkGeek.com. That's pretty shiny if we do say so ourselves.

For all of the details and the legalese, wander over to the official contest page where we give you the whys and hows in a handy list form.

What're you waiting for? Stop reading this blog post and start making art! We've never done anything quite like this before, so we're really looking forward to some face-meltingly awesome entries.

No pressure or anything.

UPDATE: This contest is now closed!

We had a lot of fun receiving entries over the last few weeks! It wasn't easy to choose a winner, and we appreciate the work that went into the designs--except for the whiteboard one by Michael J. (Just kidding, Michael! It's a clever idea but your blank entry PDF was pretty hilarious.) So without further ado...

Grand prize winner

iCADE IIIe by Andrew M., who wins a $500 shopping spree, iCADE, and skin of his design

We loved the throwback look of this skin, and of course we're suckers for a Timmy logo. (That's a Timmy there, not a very particular fruit.)

Runners-up

TARDIS by Keegan H., who wins a $100 gift certificate

Sure, everyone loves a TARDIS, but it was the detailed control panels that put us over the edge.

TRON-ish by Mike D., who wins a $100 gift certificate

Ah, it reminds of us our actual TRON arcade cabinet--just smaller. (No, we're not planning on adding blacklights to the iCADE.)

We also loved:

NES by Dann M.

Clever! It makes us want to blow on our iPads before gaming. But that would be weird.

Octopus by Meghan K. M.

The control pads are the suckers, get it? Super colorful, too.

Whiteboard by Michael J.

Yes, he even sent in a blank template to make it clear it should just be a dry erase surface all over. Neat idea.