WARNING! THIS BLOG POST IS VERY OUT OF DATE AND SHOULD NOT BE USED!
PLEASE NOTE that Caroline Walker (MizCarol) has taken much of this information provided here, and compiled a list of currently available free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies for both men and women here: The FabFree Mesh Body and Head Listing. There are a few items listed in MizCarol’s list that are not on this list, so it pays to check both! (Thanks, Caroline!)
First, let’s just recap all the free/inexpensive mesh avatar bodies for men:
The two versions of the free Altamura Max avatars at the freebie stores at UniHispana Crea and Ajuda SL Brasil (see here for more details). Note that you cannot remove the head to replace it with another mesh head.
The free Altamura Robert avatar from the Freebie Megastore at London City (see here for more details). Note that you cannot remove the head to replace it with another mesh head, although, if you were lucky enough to pick up the previous version of Robert (which was a Men Only Hunt gift last year), you can remove the head to use another mesh head with it (like the recent freebie mesh head from Akeruka).
The free Altamura Tommy avatar at the Altamura mainstore (you do need to join the Altamura group for L$50 to get this freebie; see here for more details). Again, you cannot remove the head to replace it with another mesh head. UPDATE: This gift avatar is no longer available at the Altamura mainstore, sorry!
If you were lucky, you picked up a free Altamura avatar called Aaron, which was a limited-time TeleportHub.com gift in late 2017 at their mainstore (you had to join the TeleportHub.com group for L$10 to pick up this freebie). You can remove the head to use another mesh head with it.
Finally, there is the freebie version of the EXMACHINA avatar (which you can “tan” to any skin tone you wish; more information is available here). Note that this avatar does not come with a HUD so you cannotremove the head or set any alpha sections. You basically have to buy all your clothing from EXMACHINA (although the free body does come in a version with a built-in bathing suit, so it’s the perfect freebie mesh avatar for the beach!). UPDATE March 13th, 2019: this free version is no longer available.
Rick Bijkerk of the Secondlife Facebook group alerted me to two inexpensive male mesh avatar head and body packages from Alantori. More details on this option can be found at the very end of this blogpost!
UPDATE Jan. 24th, 2019: There is a new dollarbie male mesh avatar body by META on the SL Marketplace (see here for more details).
UPDATE Feb. 14th, 2019: If you were on the ball, you were able to pick up the free, fully-featured Romeo mesh head and body package as a Valentine’s Day gift from the Altamura booth at the eBENTO Event. More details here.
UPDATE June 22nd, 2019: The Clay Bento male mesh head is a L$1 group gift from Akeruka, but only until July 6th, 2019! Here are all the details.
UPDATE June 26th, 2019: If you join the Alantori group for only L$50, you can pick up the Rick male mesh body for free from their Midnight Madness board (more details here).
UPDATE Nov. 29th, 2019: I have added an inexpensive male head from Adam to this listing.
UPDATE Jan. 20th, 2020: I cover a couple of dollarbie and freebie Bakes on Mesh full-body male mesh avatars from the SL Marketplace from **SD** and Heavy Industries, at the very end of this rather long blogpost!
UPDATE March 27th, 2020: Alantori now has a free group gift, the Marco Bakes-on-Mesh compatible Bento mesh head (the group costs only L$50 to join)…more information here.
UPDATE April 17th, 2020: The Ultimate Meshbody is celebrating its first anniversary by giving away dollarbie male and female versions of their original, Classic mesh body! More details here.
UPDATE May 3rd, 2020: Catwa has released a free group gift of a unisex (i.e. male or female) Bento mesh head, called Freya! More details here.
UPDATE May 30th, 2020: There is a new, free full-body (i.e. head and body) male mesh avatar body on the SL Marketplace called Roth 2, Version 2. More details here.
UPDATE June 22nd, 2020: I review the free male mesh full-body avatar called Onupup here.
UPDATE July 7th, 2020: Sweet’s has a L$1 male mesh head and L$1 male mesh body which I review here.
UPDATE July 20th, 2020: If you join the TeleportHub.com group for L$10, you can pick up a free, Bento, Bakes on Mesh male full-body avatar called Stay With Me over the next month! Details here.
UPDATE July 31st, 2020: The free RothTooRC1 Bento, full-body male mesh body is now Bakes on Mesh-compatible. More details here.
UPDATE Nov. 17th, 2020: There’s a new, free Bento, Bakes on Mesh male head called Viktor on the SL Marketplace; more information here.
UPDATE Nov. 19th, 2020: If you join the ALANTORI group for L$50, you can pick two different Bento, Bakes on Mesh male bodies (Rick and David), plus a Bento, Bakes on Mesh head I had blogged about before (Marco). More details here.
UPDATE Dec. 9th, 2020: LeLutka is giving away a brand new group gift of the Bento, Bakes on Mesh-compatible Alain head until December 26th, 2020; please click here for more details.
UPDATE Dec. 18th, 2020: Akeruka has a new group gift of a Bento, Bakes on Mesh-compatible male mesh head, called M02, for only L$151. More information here.
UPDATE Dec. 19th, 2020: Altamura is giving away a free, Bento full-body male avatar that is Bakes on Mesh compatible, called Take My Way! More details here.
UPDATE April 4th, 2021: Meta is selling a L$1 version of their Neo male mesh head and body package; more information here.
So, let’s take a look at some free or inexpensive mesh heads.
Akeruka
If you haven’t yet joined the Akrueka group (called [AK] Heads News & Support) for L$150, you should really consider it. If you had joined the [AK] Heads News & Support group for L$150 three years ago, you would have picked up no less than ten fully-featured, fully-adjustable Bento mesh heads by now—which works out to only L$15 per head!So join the Akeruka group and keep your eyes peeled for announcements of free Bento mesh heads every six months or so 😉
LV Designs
If you missed out on the Akeruka freebies, you can pick up a very handsome Bento mesh head from LV Designs for only L$500. The Matt head (SL Marketplace link) may not come with all the bells and whistles of the pricier Bento mesh heads from Catwa and other vendors, but it certainly does the job at one-tenth the cost, as you can see:
Cheerno
There’s a free (non-adjustable) mesh head available from the men’s section of the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil, the Andrey head from Cheerno (here’s the exact SLURL to find it):
The Marcus head comes with an expression HUD with six different facial expressions but, strangely, no ears, so you’ll have to find those elsewhere. I had a great deal of difficulty getting the mesh eyes to fit properly, this is the best I could do:
Honestly, I’d probably give the Marcus head a pass. It’s just too much of a hassle.
However, I did have much better results with the Travis mesh head, which comes with ears and an expression HUD with 6 different facial expressions:
This picture of the Travis head includes the HUD for the freebie mesh eyes from eyden & yves, showing you the nine different colour options which are available:
Looking good!
Here’s a picture of another free mesh head from 300mg, which has a darker skin tones. Here’s model S1 (again, no ears are included, and there’s no expression HUD either):
Rick Bijkerk of the Secondlife Facegroup group alerted me to an inexpensive male mesh avatar head and body package from a store called Alantori (here’s the exact SLURL):
These mesh bodies are only L$99 (or L$90, a 10% discount, if you join the Alantori group for free). So I bought the clean-shaven Mark body (the sign on the right in the picture above) and tried it on. The body comes with a fully-adjustable Bento head and Bento hands, he’s got a basic HUD with a decent set of alpha selections, and it would appear that you can tint his fingernails and toenails, which are separate attachments:
The body comes with underwear, but you might have some trouble finding clothing to fit this body properly. The sign in the store said that the body “fits all Adin and Onupup clothes”, but I had never heard of those clothing brands before. (I assume that most standard-size male clothing can also be made to fit, with all the alpha selections on the included HUD.)
The Alantori body comes with menu-driven facial expressions and hand poses, which is rather different from how most other bodies are animated using an AO. (I tested the Alantori body with a Bento male AO from Tuty’s and it worked just fine.)
Here’s a close-up of the Alantori Mark body’s head, which actually looks pretty good (the mesh eyes are included, or you can just use your system eyes):
In addition to the clean-shaven Mark body, there is also bearded, hairier Paul body for the same price (L$99 without the group, or L$90 with the free group join). It’s definitely an inexpensive option for those of you with limited Lindens to spend on a male mesh body, but you still might want to try out the freebie Altamura bodies first.
Thanks for the great tip, Rick!
Altamura Akakor
IN December 2018, Altamura was giving away a fully-adjustable, Omega-compatible male Bento mesh head called Akakor, as one of the 12 Days of Christmas gifts under the Christmas tree at their mainstore. You had to join the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group to pick up all the Advent gifts (the group join fee is L$25 during the Advent/Christmas season; usually, the fee to join is L$50). It’s worth it to join the group and stay subscribed, since Altamura often offers special deals to group members throughout the year. UPDATE: the group now costs L$100 to join.
However, there are a couple of problems with this mesh body. First, the included shape is no modify, which is useless, so I tossed it out and used the shape that came with my Altamura Romeo mesh body as a starting point (I had to do a lot of tweaking of the head as a result to get it to look decent).
The second problem is much more serious: I can’t find any mesh clothing that fits this avatar properly! Even the jeans in this picture don’t work quite right around the waist, as you can see here:
Every single article of clothing I tried, I encountered the same problem. You will have to use the alphas that come with the clothing or hunt out alphas elsewhere, since the Raphael body does not come with a HUD to alpha out parts of the body. Honestly, given the problems I had, I would give this one a pass. You’re better off going with one of the freebie Altamura bodies, which at least have a decent HUD with alpha sections.
Heavy Industries RothTooRC1 Bakes on Mesh Body
UPDATE July 31st, 2020:The free RothTooRC1 Bento, full-body male mesh body is now Bakes on Mesh-compatible, and the alphas that come with clothing now work properly with this body. More details here.
It comes with several HUDs, including a Bakes on Mesh applier HUD and a HUD to tint the fingernails and toenails, but again, there is no alpha sections HUD. And for some strange reason, I could not get any clothing alphas to work with this body at all, so you are basically stuck with using only system-layer/Bakes on Mesh clothing, like these camouflage boxers which come with the body. Again, you might want to give this one a pass.
WARNING! THIS BLOG POST IS VERY OUT OF DATE AND SHOULD NOT BE USED!
PLEASE NOTE! Caroline Walker (MizCarol) has taken much of this information provided here, and compiled a list of currently available free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies for both men and women here: The FabFree Mesh Body and Head Listing. There are a few items listed in MizCarol’s list that are not on this list, so it pays to check both! (Thank you for your hard work, Caroline!)
PLEASE NOTE:For a current, up-to-date list of free options for male mesh avatar bodies, please see this blogpost.
Mesh heads and bodies can be very expensive! This blogpost is my attempt to summarize all the options available to you if you can’t afford a pricey Bento mesh head or body, but still want to replace your old system avatar with a fully mesh one.
First, let’s just recap all the options for free or inexpensive mesh avatar bodies for women:
the Jenny Altamura mesh avatar head and body at the Freebie Megastore at London City (free; one skin tone; has Bento hands and head; more information here); you can remove the head and replace it with any other head,only if you got the freebie Jenny body from last year’s Women Only Hunt; however, you cannot remove the head if you pick it up now at the London City Freebie Megastore)
the Valentina Altamura mesh avatar head and body at the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil (free; one skin tone; has Bento hands and head; more information here); note that you cannot remove the head on this particular free body
the Emanuelle Altamura mesh avatar head and body at the Altamura mainstore (free; one skin tone; has Bento hands and head; more information here; to get this free group gift you must join the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group for L$50); you can remove the head and replace it with any other head. UPDATE: This gift is now available at this exact SLURL at the Unihispana Crea freebie store, but I am going to assume, like all the other Altamura freebies, that you cannot remove the head.
the dollarbie versions of the Classic and Curvy eBody mesh avatar bodies (these were L$1 each but are now FREE; 12 possible skin tones; vendors are available at the freebie stores at Ajuda SL Brasil and UniHispana Crea, and also at the eBody mainstore; these mesh bodies do not have Bento hands, and they have “thick” alpha selections on the included HUD, which means you have to be somewhat careful what you wear with them; they also now support Bakes on Mesh with a free BoM relay HUD available at the eBody store)
the Afrodite mesh avatar body by LUCYBODY (free Midnight Madness gift; 256 possible skintones; has Bento hands; you must join the Lucyshoes group for free to get this gift; more information here) UPDATE Nov. 4th: It has been reported to me that the Afrodite mesh body is no longer available as a Midnight Madness gift at the LUCYSHOES/LUCYBODY mainstore, and I can confirm this. It costs L$1,000 now. Thank you, LittleMe Jewell!
UPDATE Oct. 21st: There’s a new free Kim Altamura mesh avatar head and body available at the UniHispana Crea Gateway Community sim (more information here); note that you cannot remove the head on this particular free body. UPDATE: This body is no longer available, sorry!
UPDATE Nov. 3rd: Altamura has graced us with yet another free body gift in the First Annual SL Frees & Offers Hunt: the Estephania Altamura mesh avatar head and body! (more information here; note that you cannot remove the head on this particular free body.) UPDATE: This gift is no longer available at the Altamura mainstore, sorry!
UPDATE Dec. 11th: Another free option for a mesh full-body avatar is the Ruth Too RC3, scroll down to the end of this blogpost for more details!
UPDATE Dec. 28th: Altamura has released yet another free mesh avatar head and body package, called Clodet (more information here). UPDATE: This gift is no longer available at the Altamura mainstore, sorry!
UPDATE Feb. 14th, 2019: If you were on the ball, you were able to pick up the free, fully-featured Juliet mesh head and body package as a Valentine’s Day gift from the Altamura booth at the eBENTO Event. More details here.
UPDATE Feb. 20th, 2019: I have found a new inexpensive mesh body I had not heard of before, called the Sahara Mesh Avatar. UPDATE: This is no longer available, sorry!
UPDATE April 25th, 2019: I talk about the inexpensive Ocacin Standard and Voluptuous mesh bodies.
UPDATE May 3rd, 2019: I talk about the custom full-body mesh avatars by NI9HT at the very end of this long blogpost!
UPDATE June 6th, 2019: Akeruka has a new group gift of a female Bento mesh head called Cleo, for only L$1 until June 20th, 2019!Details are here.
UPDATE June 21st, 2019: Boataom has a group gift of a static mesh head if you join their group for L$99, details are in the Boataom section below.
UPDATE June 22nd, 2019: The Yala Club offers a free Maitreya-compatible Ruth mesh body, details in the Ruth section below. UPDATE: This is no longer available, sorry! I have removed the info as it is now out-of-date.
UPDATE July 20th, 2019: The freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil now has a free Bento mesh body called Tina, details at the end of this blogpost. UPDATE: And, as quickly as it appeared, Tina has disappeared! I assume that this is because it was stolen content. So I have removed Tina from this blogpost.
UPDATE Nov. 7th, 2019: I report on two dollarbie Bakes on Mesh avatars sold by Rule of Rose, in this blogpost.
UPDATE Nov. 29th, 2019: I have added an inexpensive head from Eve to the Eve & Adam section below.
UPDATE Jan. 16th, 2020: I have added a new full-body mesh avatar called Djana, which uses Bakes on Mesh (at the very end of this very long blogpost!).
UPDATE March 4th, 2020: Sweet’s has a Bakes-on-Mesh Bento mesh head and a Maitreya-compatible, Bakes-on-Mesh Bento mesh body for female avatars available for only L$1 each on the SL Marketplace! More details here.
UPDATE March 15th, 2020: LucyBody is offering a Midnight Madness prize of a fully-featured, Maitreya Lara-compatible Bento female mesh body called Atenea, for free! More details here.
UPDATE March 22nd, 2020: Genesis Lab is now offering a 99% discount on version 3.8 of the Eva female Bento mesh head, which is compatible with Omega and Bakes on Mesh. If you join the GenesisLab group, you can pick it up for only L$20! More details here.
UPDATE March 26th, 2020: There’s a new, free Bakes-on-Mesh compatible, female Bento mesh head called Ciara available from Dream. More details here.
UPDATE April 3rd, 2020: The Genus Project has announced a free, Bakes-on-Mesh compatible, female Bento mesh head, which is available in-store and as a free group gift from their group. More details here.
UPDATE April 11th, 2020: There’s a new dollarbie group gift over at Akeruka, a limited-edition Bakes on Mesh Bento female head. More details here.
UPDATE April 17th, 2020: The Ultimate Meshbody is celebrating its first anniversary by giving away dollarbie male and female versions of their original, Classic mesh body! More details here.
UPDATE May 3rd, 2020: Catwa has released a free group gift of a unisex Bento mesh head, called Freya! More details here.
UPDATE May 12th, 2020: There’s a new, very busty, free Bento, Bakes-on-Mesh female mesh body called Ruthie available from Tiny Things. More details here.
UPDATE May 29th, 2020: Little Black Dress is giving away a free Bakes-on-Mesh Ruth 2.0 mesh body for female avatars. More details here.
UPDATE June 7th, 2020: There’s a new, free, Bento, Bakes-on-Mesh compatible full-body female mesh avatar called Ariadne by Kalhene! Details can be found here and here.FIRST UPDATE June 25th, 2020: The Kalhene Ariadna body was removed late last night from the SL Marketplace; more information is here. SECOND UPDATE July 29th, 2020: The free Ariadna body is gone, but the Kalhene store has just released new, Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh bodies called Anya (female) and Alexa (flat-chested/transgender) for L$1,695 each (more information here).
UPDATE June 22nd, 2020: I review the free Ultra Vixen II female full-body mesh avatar. More details here.
UPDATE July 29th, 2020: There is a new, free, Bento, Bakes-on-Mesh-compatible full-body female mesh avatar by G&D, called Ruth 3.5. More information here.
UPDATE July 31st, 2020: The free RuthTooRC3 full-body Bento mesh body by Heavy Industries now supports Bakes on Mesh! More details here.
UPDATE Aug. 12th, 2020: There is a limited-time offer of L$99 for a very nice, Bento, Bakes on Mesh-compatible female mesh head called Bae by META. More information can be found here.
UPDATE Oct. 12th, 2020: META has released a second Bakes on Mesh, Bento mesh female head called Ava, which is also only L$99. More details here.
UPDATE Nov. 16th, 2020: There is an attractive Bento, Bakes on Mesh female head called Chivasa, sold on the SL Marketplace for only L$1! More details here.
UPDATE December 9th, 2020: LeLutka is giving away a brand new group gift, the Lilly Bento, Bakes on Mesh-compatible head, but only until Boxing Day, December 26th, 2020; more information can be found here.
UPDATE December 10th, 2020: Akeruka is once again giving a L$1 group gift of the W08 Bento, Bakes on Mesh female head (the Akeruka group costs L$150 to join; more information here).
UPDATE Dec. 19th, 2020: Altamura is giving away a free, Bento full-body female avatar that is Bakes on Mesh compatible, called Movin’ On! More details here.
UPDATE November 6th, 2021: Kalhene has a new free group gift if you join their group for free: a fully-featured female Bento mesh head called Leah! Details here.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to remove the heads from the Altamura freebie bodies:
Attach the included Altamura HUD.
Click on the white head in the HUD once to remove the head (this only works on the Juliet gift, the 2017 Women Only Hunt version of Jenny, and on the Emannuelle gift formerly available at the Altamura mainstore, but unfortunately NOTon any of the other free Altamura bodies);
Remember to also click the eyelashes, teeth, and hairbase buttons to remove those as well!
Then everything from the neck up should be removed, so you can add your own mesh head.
Now, let’s talk about free or inexpensive mesh heads to go with those bodies!
Akeruka
If you haven’t yet joined the Akrueka group (called [AK] Heads News & Support) for L$150, you should really consider it. If you had joined the [AK] Heads News & Support group for L$150 three years ago, you would have picked up no less than ten fully-featured, fully-adjustable Bento mesh heads by now—which works out to only L$15 per head! So join the Akeruka group and keep your eyes peeled for announcements of freebie or dollarbie mesh heads every six months or so 😉
Boataom
Now, here’s the Takaru mesh head from from Boataom for only L$10, which comes is six different static versions with different facial expressions, and which you can change the lipstick, blush, and eyeliner on, using the included HUD:
(It’s got a bit of a Japanese anime look to it, which is not exactly to my taste, but it might suit your needs perfectly!)
UPDATE June 21st, 2019: I have been told that if you join the Boataom group for L$99, you can pick up the Disella static mesh head as a group gift:
This is what the Disella head looks like. It comes in two skin tones, with two separate, adjustable sets of ears to match and a HUD with six different colours of lipsticks:
I tried, but I could not adjust the size of the eye opening, which I think leaves Disella with a perpetually surprised look! You might have better luck with a different set of (system or mesh) eyes from your inventory.
Genesis Lab
UPDATE Jan. 9th, 2020: The Genesis Lab group is now free to join, but I don’t know for how long! More details here.
If you go to the Genesis Lab mainstore and join their group (called GenesisLab, all one word) for L$99 (there is a group join panel on the Group Gifts wall at this SLURL), you can pick up three lovely mesh heads as free group gifts: Makena (an albino head), Lara, and Kenna:
The Lara head comes with a HUD to control the included mesh eyes (4 different eye colours), plus 4 options for the eyebrows and hairbase (red, blonde, brown and black), 4 options for eyeshadow, 4 options for skin tone, and 8 options for lipstick. Here’s what she looks like:
Genesis Lab – Lara Mesh Head
The Kenna head, which is probably my favourite static mesh head, comes with a HUD to control the included mesh eyes (8 different eye colours), plus 8 different eyebrow and hairbase colours, plus 8 choices for each of the head’s lipstick, eyeliner and eyeshadow. Here’s what she looks like:
Genesis Lab – Kenna Mesh Head
The Makena albino mesh head from Genesis Lab comes with mesh eyes, but it does not have any other options. As you can see, she’s quite striking:
Genesis Lab – Makena Mesh Head
Altamura Maya
Perhaps the best option for a free mesh head is the Maya head, available from the Altamura mainstore. This is a totally free gift (you do notneed to join the Altamura group to get it), but it’s kind of tucked away in a remote corner of the store, so use this exact SLURL to locate it (just use the Map feature in your SL viewer, click on the Show Selection button, and follow the red arrow). This is a static mesh head with one HUD to change the skin tone to one of four options, plus two HUDs for makeup options (again, I have paired it with the Curvy eBody mesh avatar body). This is the Maya head with all the makeup options turned off, so you can see the features more clearly. I think it’s quite attractive!
So there you go, all your best options for free and inexpensive Second Life mesh avatar heads and bodies! You do not need to spend a small fortune to have a good-looking mesh avatar in SL!
So, have I missed any bargains in mesh heads? If so, please leave me a comment, thanks!
But when I tried it on, I found that it wouldn’t work with the default system avatar eyes. And (despite the assertion on the product listing that it has Copy/Modify permissions), I found I could not resize the head to fix the problem. So you will have to use the Amra head with a complete body alpha which removes the system eyes, and use mesh eyes instead (such as the ones which are part of the Genesis Lab mesh head packages). Make sure you take a copy of the mesh eyes first and use the copy, as you will have to adjust them to fit this head. The free Amra head comes with a HUD with six static facial expressions, but it does not come with eyelashes, so you’ ll have to buy those separately. Here’s the result, with the mesh eyes from the Kenna head and the Curvy eBody mesh body:
As you can see, it’s quite a striking look, and definitely an option for those of you who wish to have a darker-skinned mesh avatar but don’t have a lot of Linden dollars to spend.
Someone on the official Second Life community forums sent me a message:
Safybelle has a mesh head you can “earn” by playing her in-world traffic game. All you would need is some time, a group slot, and L$99 for the Omega plugin.
So I went to the Safybelle store in-world (here’s the SLURL), joined her group for free, and started playing her game:
You can play the roulette-wheel game up to 10 times every 24 hours to earn points:
You can find other locations to play this game on the Safybelle website. (There only seems to be the one location at the moment.)
Once you earn 30,000 points, you can get this Jessy 3 Bento mesh head for FREE! (I only earned 2,110 points in my first ten tries at the roulette wheel, so it’s probably going to take about 15 days of playing to earn 30,000 points.)
If amassing 30,000 points seems like too unattainable a goal, there are also two other prize vendors within the store itself (here’s the SLURL), where you can get the Jessy 2 model Bento mesh head for only 16,000 points, or the Elwing elf Bento head (with animated ears) for only 19,900 points:
After that, all you will need is the Safybelle Omega relay applier (available on the SL Marketplace for L$99), and you will be able to use any Omega-compatible skin with your Jessy 3, Jessy 2, or Elwing Bento mesh head!
Thanks for the tip, Fionalein! 🙂
UPDATE Oct. 7th: Well, I finally collected the 30,000 points to get the free Jessy 3 Bento mesh head from Safybelle, and it is definitely worth all the work to earn those points! Here’s what the head looks like, along with the HUD:
The Jessy 3 head comes complete with:
12 hairbase tones
9 skin tones
8 eyebrow styles and colours
5 styles of eyelashes
mesh eyes in 27 different colours, with a reflections option
a choice of human or elf ears (with an elf ear animation)
a choice of angry, sad, sexy, happy, or standard facial animations
and it even has 8 different settings for eyeblink animations!
For a free, fully-adjustable, Omega compatible Bento mesh head, this is truly a super deal! The Jessy 3 head compares quite favourably with Bento mesh heads costing L$5,000 or more! So head over to the Safybelle store and get that roulette wheel a-spinning! And, even better, if you’ve already used up your 10 turns for the day, you can still play the sploder pig to earn more points!
UPDATE Oct. 9th: Well, I’ve had a few more days to play with the Safybelle Jessy 3 Bento mesh head, and I am going to have to retract my statement that the head is “fully-adjustable”. It turns out that many of the head appearance sliders (particularly those under the Head and Chin sections) do notchange the features of this head, as they would with a fully Bento mesh head by Catwa or another maker. You can still make some adjustments to the eyes, nose, and mouth, though. I still think that this is a great deal for a mesh head, I just wanted to add that clarification to my earlier enthusiastic comments.
Here’s a picture of the Safybelle Jessy 3 head with the elf ears enabled. The ears can be animated, and it’s fun to watch them move and twitch!
Ruth 2.0
Another option for those of you without Linden dollars to spend is the entirely free, open source female mesh avatar head and body package, called Ruth Too RC3, which is available on the SL Marketplace by Heavy Industries. There are three packages available, which include not only the mesh head and body, and HUDs for 9 different skin tones and alpha selections, but even starter hair, a dress, and shoes!
With the included alpha HUD, you can pretty much make clothing designed for any other mesh avatar body work with Ruth. Here is Ruth wearing the free Clover dress from the Baby Monkey capsule wardrobe available at the Free*Style store (more details here) as well as the free Sonnet pumps from the freebie store at Hilly Haalan (more details here). I had to adjust the pumps a bit to feet the feet, but it worked out okay. I added the free Alli & Ali Marilyn hairstyle from the selection at The Free Dove, and here’s the final look:
Looking good for zero Lindens!
Heavy Industries is not the only vendor selling the Ruth 2.0 mesh body. You can also get one for free from Vlad Blackburn, or for L$1 from The Body Studio Store. Duck Girl also sells a Ruth RC3 hands, feet and nails update for L$1. I’m sure there are others if you search on “Ruth” or “Roth” on the Second Life Marketplace.
UPDATE Dec. 19th, 2018: The 8th day Advent gift at Altamura is a fully-adjustable, Omega-compatible, female Bento mesh head called Leila (you do have to join the Altamura group for L$25 to pick up this gift; more information here):
This head is only available until Christmas, and then it’s gone, so hurry down!
Here is what the Altamura Leila head looks like with all the default makeup removed, the free LAQ Joline Omega skin applied, and a dollarbie Omega lipstick by Poema added, with a Maitreya Lara body (LAQ body appliers to match the LAQ skintones are L$300 per tone):
Looking verygood!
Sahara Mesh Avatar, Skins and Basic Mesh Head
UPDATE July 29th, 2020: This body seems to no longer be available, sorry!
I discovered that I had overlooked yet another option for an inexpensive female mesh avatar, called the Sahara Mesh Avatar body. At this SLURL (warning: adult-rated sim), you can pick up the following items:
the Sahara Mesh Avatar for L$29;
a Basic Mesh Head for L$1; and
a package of 5 skins for L$1
The sign indicates that the Sahara Mesh Avatar is Maitreya Lara compatible, and I found that clothes and shoes designed for Maitreya did indeed work well with this mesh body. The Basic Mesh Head is non-Bento, and it does have some flaws around the neck seam area, although an included facelight seems to fix the situation somewhat. (You can replace it with any other mesh head, as I did in the second picture below.) Not that the body is not Omega-compatible and it does not have Bento hands.
Here is what the final result looks like, along with the HUD to select alpha sections:
Actually, not a bad result at all for a Maitreya-compatible body for only L$31 total! Here’s what the body looks like with the Akeruka Maia Bento mesh head that was available last June as a group gift:
The hands on the Sahara mesh body are particularly lovely (especially compared to the hands on the freebie eBody mesh bodies), but they do have one small problem: although there is a fingernail texture applier HUD included in the package, there are no fingernail textures! So the default fingernails on this body are a grey colour.
However, I was able to use the fingernail texture applier HUD with a light pink texture already in my inventory, and it worked out okay.
The Ocacin mesh bodies come in only one skintone, and they have only one HUD, to control the alpha selections, which are arranged rather strangely. While both Marketplace listings say that these bodies have Bento-compatible hands, I found that neither would work with my Bento AO. In this picture you can see the alpha HUD and the Ocacin Standard body, paired with the Akeruka Lulu Bento mesh head (a choker hides the slight seam at the neck):
I did find the toes on these bodies to be a bit ugly. You can use the HUD to hide the default high-heeled feet, and replace them with four other kinds of the feet from the Add Ons folder: flat, mid heels, and killer heels, plus a pair of feet which are compatible with MAP brand feet. Oddly, when you remove the default feet and replace them with another pair, the red toenails of the original feet are not removed! Adjusting your avatar’s hover height should fix this irritating bug, though.
I can’t figure out how to change the toenail or fingernail colours, or adjust the fingernail length (which by default is rather long).
NI9HT
When I first came across the Mrs. Philips avatar in-world, I did a complete double-take. She looked so real! The texture work is amazing!
And when I discovered that you could buy the Mrs. Philips full-body mesh avatar for only L$300, I snapped one up right away! The body comes with Bento hands, and includes the outfit, jewelry and hairstyle. All I did was make the arms a little longer, and the head a little smaller, and I added a free purse, a group gift from Belle Epoque at the 7th anniversary of the FaMESHed event on now.
Of course, there’s a catch. And that is that the clothing is part of the avatar mesh and cannot be removed. (The nacklace and bracelets are a separate attachment.) So if you’re not too fussy about what your avatar is wearing, but you want a completely different look from all the young-looking people around you, this might be your thing. It’s my new favourite avatar to slip on when I wander around the grid exploring!
NI9HT also sells custom full-body nude avatars. Again, you won’t be able to dress them (no clothing will likely fit the custom mesh bodies and there’s no HUD with alpha selections available), but if you’re just wanting to use one for dancing/stripping/escort work in SL, or you only hang out at nude beaches, they might be perfect for you.
The dollarbie Djana Bakes on Mesh avatar from the SL Marketplace by **SD** is a complete head-and-body mesh avatar (based on Ruth 2.0) which supports Bakes on Mesh skins and makeup. You can remove the head and use any other Bakes on Mesh-compatible mesh head. Both the head and the body are fully adjustable using the sliders, but the head still has a bit of a blocky look to it, despite my best efforts.
Even more perplexing, the included shape is no modify, which is frankly useless. For these pictures, I used the Gretchen starter avatar shape as my starting point, along with the Gretchen ballgown. No skin was included, so I used one of the system skins which were part of one of the free group gifts from Genesis Labs, their Cream skin with black eyebrows, and I added one of the black Jumo system hairbases with the Janelle updo (a recent Advent gift).
Here is what she looks like (there is a slight but noticeable seam between the head and the body):
The hands are Bento, but the feet do not appear to be Maitreya or Slink-compatible, and they come in only one foot shape (high), so you might have some difficulty finding shoes that fit this avatar. I finally found a pair of (unrigged) Sonnet pumps from Hilly Haalan for Maitreya feet that worked, but I had to leave off the foot base (which turned the feet white!) and adjust them to fit manually.
I’m still fiddling with the shape and the head is still a little blocky for my personal tastes, but overall, it’s a good mesh body for just one Linden dollar!
UPDATE Sept. 28th: For a current, up-to-date list of free or inexpensive options for mesh avatar heads and bodies for female Second Life avatars, please see this blogpost. For a current, up-to-date list of free options for free and inexpensive male mesh avatar heads and bodies, please see this blogpost.
Vampire roleplay is a very popular pastime in Second Life, so today I decided to do a 15-minute makeover on a vampire avatar. Here’s the “Before” look, the now-familiar Iliana vampire avatar from SL’s Fantasy starter avatar collection:
And here’s the “After” look (please click on each picture to see it in a larger size):
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head, Vampire Teeth, and Facial AO: Maia Bento mesh head from Akeruka (this was a time-limited free group gift which is no longer available for free; the group join fee was L$150). More details here.
Mesh Body and Hands AO: Jenny Bento mesh body by Altamura (available for free at the Freebie Megastore at London City). I removed the included head to replace it with the Maia head. More details here.
Gown: Well of Souls gown by Silvan Moon Designs (free gift from the recent SL15B shopping event).
Shoes (Not Shown): Black flats by Garbaggio (part of the free sample pack for Slink feet; available on the SL Marketplace). Altamura mesh avatar bodies have Slink-compatible feet.
Jewelry: Daphne collar, earrings, and Bento ring by Beloved Jewelry (three free hunt items from the September Free Dove mini-hunt at the Beloved Jewelry mainstore). The included HUD gives a choice of 12 different metals and 33 different gemstones!
Body AO: Chubby Girl AO by [ImpEle] (free from the SL Marketplace). This is a nice, simple, calm AO with no crazy movements.
Hair: Que Bella in abyss black from Hairoin (a store which is unfortunately no longer in Second Life; I bought this many years ago and I forget what I paid for this)
TOTAL COST FOR THIS MAKEOVER (not including the hair): L$150 (the Akeruka group join fee)
UPDATE Sept. 28th: For a current, up-to-date list of free or inexpensive options for mesh avatar heads and bodies for female Second Life avatars, please see this blogpost. For a current, up-to-date list of options for free and inexpensive male mesh avatar heads and bodies, please see this blogpost.
Late last year, Altamura very generously gave the Jenny full-body mesh avatar as a free hunt prize in the Women Only Hunt, and the Robert full-body mesh avatar as a free hunt prize for the Men Only Hunt. Altamura has also given out free male (Max) and female (Valentina) mesh bodies at the freebie stores at Ajuda SL Brasil and Unihispana Crea. These are beautifully designed mesh avatar bodies, equal in quality to the much pricier versions available.
Well, the Men Only Hunt and Women Only Hunt are on once again, and this time around, there’s botha male mesh avatar head and body package (Tommy) anda female mesh avatar head and body package (Emanuelle) as FREE hunt prizes!
To get the Tommy full-body mesh avatar, you have to find a black moustache. To get the Emanuelle full-body mesh avatar, you are looking for half a coconut. The hunt officially starts tomorrow, August 4th and runs until August 18th, but I was able to find both hunt prizes already today, Friday, August 3rd.
You don’t need to join a group to get the hunt prizes, but if you do get the Emanuelle female mesh avatar body, there’s also a free set of lipstick appliers, just for it. Just click the panel you see in the picture above the Emanuelle display (you’ll have to join the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group for L$50 to get the lipstick appliers).
As I have said before, I have found that clothing designed for the Maitreya Lara mesh avatar body fits the Altamura female body very well, with a minimum of fuss. Also, the Altamura female mesh bodies have Slink-compatible feet, so any shoe designed for Slink feet should work well (the female mesh body gift comes in three foot heights, selectable via HUD: flat, medium, and high). The bodies have Bento hands, and (in a nice touch) Altamura has included a hand AO which cycles natural hand positions, which you can use with your regular (non-Bento) AO. Both bodies also come with a facial AO.
Both Tommy and Emanuelle come with a HUD which allows you a complete set of alpha selections to make any clothes look good. However, you should know that, on the male Tommy avatar, you will notbe able to remove the attached head to replace it with another head. However, on the female Emanuelle body, you canremove the head, eyelashes, teeth, and hair and use a different head with the body (like, say, that beautiful new Maia Bento mesh head you picked up for free from Akeruka). Also note that Omega skin appliers will not work with these hunt prize bodies. You are stuck with the single skin tone they have.
Here are a couple of shots of the Emanuelle mesh avatar body so you can see what it looks like (please click on each picture to see it full size):
