Tag: Maitreya

Shots Fired! Further Dispatches from the Female Bento Mesh Body Wars: Maitreya Throws a 50% Off Cyber Week Sale

I got a tip early this morning that Maitreya was having a Cyber Week 50% Off sale which, of course, includes the perennially popular Maitreya Lara female mesh body:

The sale excludes gift cards, and is only at their mainstore. I popped into their store (SLURL) to check it out.

The Maitreya Lara female mesh body, which usually retails for L$2,750, is on sale until Dec. 6th for only L$1,375. The petite breast add-on, which usually sells for L$599, is only L$299. And the flat-chest add-on (which I believe is comparable to the popular V-Tech add-on) is selling for L$249, half of its regular L$499 price.

This is the first time in this blogger’s memory that Maitreya has ever had a sale. Of course, everybody and their dog designs for Maitreya Lara; they still have an estimated 70% of the female mesh body market, although I’m quite sure that they are seeing strong competition from, among others, the Meshbody Legacy female mesh body, which includes a package of deformers to enable you to wear most Maitreya Lara-designed clothing on it (Nodoka Hanamura recently reviewed the Legacy body here). I have noticed more and more designers are now creating clothing for the Meshbody Legacy body, including a few who used to be Maitreya-exclusive (like Belle Epoque).

And, of course, there have been other, cheaper Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh bodies which I have written about before on this blog, notably the LucyBody Atenea and the Kalhene Anya mesh bodies, which I have found fit most apparel designed for Maitreya Lara. Please note that, as of this writing, the Kalhene Anya Bento, Bakes on Mesh female body (which includes a head) is still on sale for only L$999 (45% off the regular price) at Kalhene’s Black Friday sale (here’s the SLURL to their store):

The Kalhene Black Friday sale was advertised as ending on Nov. 30th, so I don’t know if it has been extended, or for how long, so if you want that L$999 Kalhene Anya body, you’d better hurry down today! As I have written, you get more bang for your buck with the Kalhene Anya body than you would with Maitreya Lara. I have found in my testing that the Kalhene Anya mesh body is 99% compatible with apparel and footwear designed for Maitreya Lara. The only problem area I encountered with the Anya body was the wrist area on certain long-sleeved shirts and tops (see image, right).

Shots fired! The female Bento mesh body wars are starting to get interesting!

UPDATED: Version 4.0 of the Kalhene Anya and Alexa Bodies: A Great Second Life Bakes-on-Mesh Bento Head and Body Package Gets Even Better!

I have been following the progress of the Kalhene Bento, Bakes on Mesh bodies (the Anya female body and the Alexa transgender body) for some time now, and I am mightily impressed with how often the creator issues updates. We are now at version 4.0 of the Anya body, which I have found to be nearly 100% compatible with apparel and footwear designed for Maitreya Lara mesh bodies!

Pay a visit to the Kalhene store (located opposite the N-Core shoe store), and for only L$1,795, you get not only a Maitreya-Lara-compatible Bento mesh body, with a top-notch HUD, but you also get a Bento mesh head, plus pretty much everything else you need to get started—skins, eyes, hair, a starter wardrobe, even an AO to control the eyes, head, and hands! All you need to add is a body AO and you’re all set!

Let’s draw up a side-by-side comparison chart, showing you what you get for your money: column A is the Kalhene Anya version 4.0 head and body, and Column B is the Maitreya Lara version 5.3 mesh body with a Catwa brand of Bento mesh head (the most popular combination):

Kalhene Anya 4.0Maitreya Lara 5.3
Base Cost of Mesh BodyL$1,795L$2,750
Petite Breast OptionIncluded (all clothing in the package works with it) L$599 extra
Flat Chest OptionIncluded (all clothing in the package works with it) L$499 extra
Implant (Large) Breast OptionIncluded (all clothing in the package works with it)Not included (not sure what the extra cost would be!)
Bento Hands and Nails Included; Fingernails come in 36 colours and patterns, and 5 styles Included; Fingernails come in 19 colours and 5 styles
Mesh Feet 3 feet heights controlled by HUD (flat, medium, and high) 5 feet heights controlled by HUD (flat, kitten, medium, high, and point)
Bento Mesh HeadIncludedNot Included (Catwa heads cost L$5,000)
Starter SkinIncluded (5 skin tones in regular and flat-chested versions)Included (22 skin tones)
Starter WardrobeBikini (12 colours), dress (8 colours), shirt (4 colours), leggings (4 colours), flat shoes (5 colours, 2 styles), high-heeled shoes (5 colours, 3 styles), plus black and white pantyhose/stockings and finger rings. All apparel fits flat. petite, regular, and implant breast versions of the Anya body.Bra and Panties by Erratic (9 colours) and Zaara (black)
TOTAL COSTL$1,795L$8,848 (not including the cost of a starter wardrobe)
Comparison Chart: Kalhene Anya versus Maitreya Lara with a Catwa head

Also, because the included skin tones that come the Maitreya Lara body and your choice of Catwa head will not match, you will also have to shell out for skin appliers from your favourite skin store (or a Bakes on Mesh skin, since both Maitreya and Catwa now support BoM). You could easily spend well over L$10,000 before you’re done with the Maitreya/Catwa combination, whereas you could take that extra money and put it towards apparel, footwear, hairstyles, and Bakes on Mesh skins, cosmetics and tattoos if you opt for the Kalhene Anya mesh body.

Here’s a look at the HUD that comes with version 3.0 of the Anya body. Note that unlike earlier versions, there are now three feet heights, controllable by the HUD (instead of separate mesh bodies): flat feet, mid-height feet, and high heel feet.

There’s a pretty complete set of alpha selections on the HUD, which compares quite favourably with those of the major mesh body brands, and of course you can also use the alphas that come with the clothing you buy. If you do need a set of alphas to use with clothing that does not come with them, you can pick up a free set from Little Black Dress at this SLURL (just click on the bag on the floor).

The separate clothing HUD allows you to change the colour and style of the included hairstyle (bangs/no bangs), as well as all of the included starter wardrobe items, including the metals and gemstones on the included set of rings, the ability to show or hide the rings on each finger, and the colour and style of two kinds of shoes, flat and high (including the flats shown here; other options include sandals and pumps). Black and white pantyhose and tights (in all three feet heights and four different transparency levels) are included in the package, too.

Here’s a look at a completely styled version of the Anya mesh avatar, showing you where on the body and clothing HUDs I made selections:

As you can see, you can create and style a complete avatar look using only the elements in the Anya package! However, I also wanted to show you how this body would look with a different head and skin (the Anya head and body are separate attachments, and of course you can mix and match them with other BoM-compatible heads and bodies as you wish).

This avatar is wearing:

  • Mesh Head: Strong Face gift Bento mesh head from The Genus Project (free group gift)
  • Mesh Body: Anya version 3.0 from Kalhene (L$1,695; Kalhene has a a small store located opposite the N-Core Design footwear store (here’s the SLURL)
  • Skin: Brielle by Amara Beauty (a former free group gift; group is free to join)
  • Hair: Beyoncé hair by enVOGUE (a L$1 gift from a previous year’s Hair Fair)
  • Gown: Azahara ballgown in red by Scandalize (which I picked up using the recent group gift of L$400 store credit; the Scandalize group costs L$100 to join, but if you hurry, you can join for free and pick up a second L$400 store credit offer! I believe today is the final day you can join the Scandalize group for free.)
  • Jewelry: I pulled this old set from my inventory; they came from a store that has long since left the grid!

TOTAL COST OF THIS AVATAR LOOK: L$1,696 (L$1,695 for the Kalhene Anya mesh body when I purchased it, and L$1 for the hair; the rest was free!)

UPDATE March 31st, 2021: I wanted to report that Kalhene has now released version 4.0 of the Anya mesh body! If you bought an earlier version of the Anya body, you can get a redelivery at their in-world store here; just click the large REDELIVERY sign on the wall as shown here:

Among the new features in this latest release are:

  • a new mesh head (version 2), with a stronger jawline, more arched eyebrows and some soft changes on the nose and lips;
  • three new different breast positions via deformer animations in the HUD (which works for all breast sizes: petite, regular, and implants), to give a more natural look to the breasts;
  • a neck fix for LeLutka mesh heads; and
  • new body oil materials (for the mesh body Bakes on Mesh only).

I have now been using the Anya mesh body with dozens and dozens of outfits that were designed for the Maitreya Lara body, without any issues, except for two minor ones:

  1. sometimes, on only a few very long-sleeved shirts, there is a problem with the wrist and hand area, where the hand pokes through the sleeve; and
  2. with a few pairs of jeans or pants, the waist of the pants is a bit wider than the waist of the body (see image, right), a problem which does not occur on the Maitrey Lara mesh body.

However, these problems are so uncommon (I have encountered them only 4 or 5 times in well over a year of testing!), that I can recommend the Anya 3.0 mesh body without hesitation if you want a Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh body at a bargain price!

Here is the version 4.0 the Anya body paired with the recent dollarbie group gift of the Catwa HFPRO Queen Bento mesh head, along with a look at the new HUD:

A look at the version 4.0 Anya body HUD (the alpha HUD is separate)

Note that the alpha sections HUD seen in the version 3.0 pictures earlier in this blogpost is still available; it’s in the box marked “BOXED -Kalhene- ANYA Mesh Body V4.0 (BoM + Alpha HUD)” in the version 4.0 package, which must be unpacked separately (the alpha sections HUD looks identical to the one pictured above). Please also note that you must use the bodies in that particular unpacked folder with the alpha sections HUD! For some strange reason, the alpha HUD didn’t work with the bodies from the main folder.

So, wait are you waiting for? Get shopping! 😉

BREAKING NEWS (Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies Edition): The Free Kalhene Ariadna Mesh Body Has Been Removed from the SL Marketplace Due to a DMCA Complaint

Please note that I am taking a vacation from the blog for the next two to three weeks, except for sponsored blogposts (and the occasional breaking news story such as this).

Have you heard?? Minusseven has posted the following comment to my most recent blogpost about the Kalhene Ariadna mesh body:

Unfortunately, the Kahlene body has been taken off the marketplace. I heard it was because Maitreya had complained to LL, but that might just be a rumor.

I have checked and it is, indeed, now gone from the SL Marketplace. In the back of my mind, I think I knew that this might happen, which is one of the reasons I loaded up all my female alts in SL just to pick up a copy of this freebie.

I’m not sure if Linden Lab has the ability to actually remove content from people’s inventories if a product is deemed to be somebody else’s stolen intellectual property (I seem to remember that they can, but it is not used very often). Daisy Winthorpe (who knows more about this than I do) has informed me that:

Linden Lab can pull the UUID of the mesh and the UUIDs of the texture. If the person who filled out the DMCA has proof enough, I am sure they will.

So, it would appear to be possible that we could lose all Kalhene Ariadna items in our SL inventories. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but we’ll see. I will be sorry to see this beautifully-crafted female mesh body go; in a very short period of time it made a big impression!

The creator, Claudia Urdaneta, posted the following notice to the Kalhene Second Life group:

Hi all. I want to communicate something important about the ARIADNA bodymesh. I have recently received a DMCA for my work, and according to Linden’s rules, I must remove the content and disable it from sale until this whole issue is resolved. In the meantime I will continue to work on improving, and on new items. I ask you for patience and I want to thank you for the welcome that my work had. I hope this matter will be solved and it will be available again soon.

DMCA refers to the U.S.’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When Linden Lab receives a complaint against a store or brand, they must act. You can read more about the process here when I blogged about a DMCA complaint filed against The Genus Project, which led to the closing of their in-world store.

Hoo boy, the people over at Virtual Secrets (the National Enquirer of Second Life) are gonna have a field day with this one! Everyone is gonna have an opinion, and point fingers (probably at Maitreya). There will probably also be something on the SL gossip website The Whisperer, who tends to keep tabs (and provide receipts!) on the never-ending drama and intrigue in the Second Life fashion community.

Stay tuned! This could get interesting.