Access is one of the many monthly shopping events in Second Life™. It’s skewed towards female avatars as usual, but it has a fair number of items for the guys and a couple of pieces for those of you who like to play house in SL. If you want to get a better idea of what’s on offer before heading over to the sim, you can check out their shopping guide. The event runs from the 12th of the month until the 8th of the next month. I tried getting there earlier, but I couldn’t get to the sim because it was constantly full. That probably has a lot to do with the anniversary round and all the gifts, which is what I’ll be concentrating on with this blog post. To grab these gifts you need to be in the Access Updates group, which is free to join.
This is the first time I visited Access and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought there were going to be far less items for male avatars, but it’s not bad at all. The layout of the event confused me for a second, but when I zoomed out it all made more sense. Most of the male avatar items are in the central area, but a few pop up in the outer circle too.
Alright alright alright, let’s look at the first three gifts. I’m cutting down on coffee in real life, but I’m sure this lovely coffee cup by Cinoe will not impact my blood pressure, in the same way that Second Life™ gave new meaning to the expression “empty calories”. I was chuffed when I first unpacked the beautifully constructed gold studio lamp by Bondi, but a bit miffed by the absence of a light script. I added my own invisible globe with a directional light to make it more useful. It now throws a light on my bed… bow chicka wow wow. If you have a house in a rural setting, you will appreciate the milk can planter by Rezz Room. I recently traded in my old Linden Home for one of the new Bellisseria homes and this planter looks quite welcoming on the small porch by the front door.
The interior decorating fun continues with the Pitaya geometric floor lamp. Yet again, there was no light script in this lamp, so no way to turn it on and off. You’ll have to help yourself with that. The Minimal bed by Wrong is a pretty impressive modern four poster that comes in gold and silver. It’s PG only, so there will be no rumpy de pumpy going on here. Those of you who were hoping for some small items to decorate the home, may be charmed by the little Granada Shelf bij Krescendo. There’s a version with a photo (you can swap out the image in edit mode) and an empty one, which I used for the Leaf Plant by BH9.
You know that saying “if you can’t say anything nice, say nothing at all”? There definitely were some items among these gifts that ever so slightly pissed me off but I won’t be naming names. The very least you should get right is the rigging. Actually, the overall quality of the product should be representative of your brand. Giving away something that doesn’t fit the avatars it was made for does absolutely nothing for customer relations. RIGHT! Now that I have gotten that tiny little rant out of the way, let’s look at some items for male avatars from the Access gift pile.
There’s the Miguel skin by Not Found in four skin tones. It’s for Lelutka mesh heads, but it’s an applier without bom layers so it’s not ideal for the Skyler head, but it does look great on Guy. As usual with these skin gifts, the body applier isn’t included so you’ll have to hop over to Not Found to pick it up at the friendly price of L$345 per skin tone, which includes various versions with and without defined abs. Heck you can even go a bit chubby with this one, which is rather unique in SL. I’m wearing Jude sunglasses by Ohemo, the Simple Wrist Watch by Gutchi, a shirt over my shoulder by Invictus, Arie joggers by VUK (rigged for Signature and Legacy), Aqua Boots by Grailed and the Fawn tattoo by Dappa. All these items are gifts from Access. It’s rare that you can put together a whole coherent look with just gifts. I’m using the Lelutka Guy mesh head, Legacy mesh body and Modulus Cole hair (a gift at their store).
If you fancy a day at the beach, then Access has you covered with the gift by Varsity. Their Yves trunk is suitable for Gianni, Jake and Legacy and you can get it in any colour you want, as long as it’s black. After your swim you may want to throw on a shirt, which you can do if you grabbed the Tropical Shirt by LOB. There even are some posing gifts at Access, like the dive by Diversion and a thoughtful looking pose with a pair of shades in your hands by WetCat… I guess I’m wondering where I left my flip flops, cause I saw a sign that said “no shirt, no shoes, not service”. Do flip flops even count as shoes? So many existential questions!
There’s more beautiful skin fun with Trey by Stray Dog. You get it in three dark skin tones suitable for Catwa mesh heads (applier and bom layers). At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the matching body skin is not included, so you need to gallop along to Stray Dog to pick one up for L$490. The Zeke Dreads by Camo are also a gift at Access. If you’re planning to making a day out of it, you may want to take the Robert bag by Exalted. I’m using the Catwa Victor head and Legacy mesh body.
That was it for now. There are more gifts and just because I left something out, it doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. What it mean is, that I ran out of steam. Choo ch… See, my choo choo no go no more. So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu. Till the next time ya’ll climb aboard the Beaverhausen Express.
Billy Beaverhausen 