I recently blogged about the fantastic deal that Altamura had at the recent Second Life Skin Fair, a complete Bento mesh avatar body and head package for only L$300. Well, if you missed that, there’s another Altamura deal coming up starting today!
If you’re in the market for a Bento mesh avatar head for your female Second Life avatar, and you don’t want to pay L$5,000 for a Catwa, Lelutka or LAQ head, head over to the Expo Fair, where you pick up the Jenny Bento mesh head by Altamura for only L$700! (You do have to become a member of the Altamura group to get the discount; the group join fee is L$50.)
The Expo Fair just opened today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/SL Time, and I don’t know how long it runs for, so hurry down! Here’s a SLURL that should take you directly to the Altamura booth at the fair. (It’s not a large fair; there’s only 18 booths in a skybox.)
I did come across one serious bug with this head. I bought it and set it up to wear with the Altamura Valentina body I had bought earlier at the Skin Fair. The neck seam on the Jenny head was noticeably wider than the neck on the Valentina body (see image, right). In order to fix it, you have to click the “OTHER” button on the included Jenny head HUD, and then CLICK AROUND IN AN ATTEMPT TO FIND THE INVISIBLE BUTTON that removes this neck seam, located somewhere above the ear removal button on the bottom!
I’ve already told the Altamura customer support people just how stupid this design decision is. Here’s an actual transcript of my conversation with their rep:
Me: I don’t understand.
Customer Service Rep: In that area are hidden buttons horizontally. Click in that area and watch the neck.
Me: I can’t find the hidden button. Wait, OK, I finally got it. That is a TERRIBLE PROBLEM with the HUD.
CSR: Well, we hid them because too many people were actually messing their necks up, and less people had issues, so…
Me: That’s wrong.
CSR: Since the new HUDs on the way, it’s a moot point…LOL
Me: That’s too confusing. And you are going to get a lot of people buying this head that have the same problem.
CSR: This way I have to assist 20 people. The other way was 200.
So, buyer beware! Perhaps Altamura will issue an updated HUD with a fix for this incredibly stupid issue. Invisible buttons?!?? I am not very impressed with this answer at all. Overall, I do find the Altamura HUDs and supporting documentation to be confusing already, compared to the HUDs and documentation for other mesh avatar bodies and heads. Maybe in some cases, you do get what you pay for.
However, if you want a good deal on a beautiful, fully customizable Bento mesh head, despite some problems and frustrations with its HUDs, I can recommend the Altamura Jenny head. At less than one-fifth the cost of the upscale models, it’s still a real deal.
Here’s a picture of one of my alts, wearing the Altamura Jenny head and Altamura Valentina body:
She is wearing:
- Head and Lipstick: Altamura Jenny Bento mesh head, just purchased from the Expo Fair (L$700)
- Body and Nails: Altamura Valentina Bento mesh body from the recent Skin Fair (L$300; no longer available at that price)
- Hair: Chikai hair in black by Argrace (free gift)
- Eyes: Look Into My eyes in brown by Exodi (no longer available for sale)
- Earrings: Casual Pearls earrings by Miriel (no longer available for sale)
- Clothing: Temis shirt and skirt by Scandalize (free group gift)
- Shoes (not seen): Marquesse classic pumps in black (free; from the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil)
- AO: Tuty’s Lucky Girl Bento AO by Tuty (free; with additional Bento stand animations added from the dollarbie SEmotion Newbie Girl AO HUD available on the Marketplace; you do NOT need to spend thousands of Lindens on a Bento AO!)
Total cost of this complete Bento mesh avatar: L$1,001.
UPDATE April 11th: I’ve been told by someone in the official Second Life user forums that the HUD for the demo version of the Jenny head does have the buttons visible to adjust the neck, so here is a comparison to show you exactly what I am complaining about. Here’s a picture of the HUD for the demo version:
Now compare that with the same page of the HUD for the full version:
See what I mean about invisible buttons? Stupid, stupid, STUPID, stupid, stupid…
UPDATE April 12th: I have heard back from Altamura on the official Second Life forums, and they say that they have corrected the problem with the HUD:
Hello, Vanity Fair
What you show is the neck size, it is not a seam. However the HUD is fixed on the sold version and not on the demo. We named this part “Neck size” and Now you can turn off the neck .So you can widely spread this news on your blog :). Neck size exists to connect the mesh head with the second life body. It is not necessary on bodymesh, if the creator of the body has respected the canons of sl. Even if the body mesh creator has not respected it, the body will be provided with a fitting neck, you can use that.
Here’s an image of the updated HUD that apparently is now being offered with the sold version (I can’t verify this unless I actually purchase the Jenny head again, but I’m certainly willing to take their word for it.)
