A Look At The Chibi Noodle Dragon Avatar

By Bixyl Shuftan

While some people stick with one avatar all the time, many people I know have a small collection of them. While usually in one appearance, they'll change to something else for a contest, a roleplay, or just for a little fun. So once in a while, when friends keep talking about a certain avatar, many are inclined to get one. Some months ago, a number of people were going after a three-headed feral canine called the "Hellhound." This month, there's a new "must have" avatar" the Chibi Noodle Dragon.

To begin with, the avatar is made by NutBusterz, which in the past has made a variety of products, including some cheeky ones. One friend called the product their effort to make something cute and innocent. The main place to get one is at the Gacha Guild Spring in Dew Drop. There are other good avatars there, such as the "Curious Critters" avatars by XuXu (Xulael Resident). If you want the Chibi Noodle Avatar, it can be found close to Dew Drop (112/116/1738). You'll have to walk to it as teleporting to the Gacha Guild, you'll end up at the entry area.

Getting the avatar is usually simple enough, paying just 100 Lindens into the vendor. But it has been known to break, which requires messaging someone to fix it. You then get not the avatar, but a voucher for one. This is non-copyable, but can be given to someone like other items in gachas. To get the avatar, you don't open the voucher, which could break it. You "add" it to your avatar, then click on it. It will appear on you looking like a small and cute dragon in your arms. Clicking on that will get you the avatar.

Like other gacha avatars, some varieties are less common than others. The common ones are the "Natural," "Thawny," "Spotted," and "Noir." Uncommon are the "Piebald" and "Runic." There are two rare ones with pronounced horns. The most rare is the "Koi," which is fishtailed. The vouchers can be traded, and the rare and ultrarare ones can fetch some good money (or you could give one to a noodle fan among your circle of friends and make them really happy).

Even if you're not a dragon fan, you'll probably think of the noodle dragon as cute and adorable. While not quite as small as most tiny avatars and much larger than a petite, it's still small. It's natural expression is to smile. It makes cute noises, especially when getting belly rubs, and it's various animations add to it's cuteness.

Moving around is much like a regular avatar, though you're usually on all fours. There is a HUD that allows you to look asleep, mad, sad, etc. There are also nine body animations, such as sitting down, rubbing a whisker, rolled over on the back, hugging, dancing on the ground, dancing on the back legs. One animation has the noodle dragon offering an egg (the Koi offers caviar). If touched, the person touching gets a copy of the egg. It can be hatched into a pet dragon that can be held. I read there is a swimming HUD, but haven't tried it out yet.

There's a number of accessories available for the chibi noodle dragon. Only a few are made by NutBusterz. Many can be found at the Gacha Guild Spring, such as hoodies and other outfits, teacups with various phrases of which adding it to the avatar gets it to drink it (the ultra-rare in the gacha is a coffee machine). There are also armors available. The avatar is also modifiable, and there are skins out for it. Someone passed me a copyable "death breath" attachment, so some of the mods are being passed around for free. There's also a large number of accessories available on Marketplace.

The avatar is Bento, so some older viewers may not be able to see it properly. The other problem is that to some, gachas can be quite addictive. "Betcha can't stop at just one," one might say. And indeed many can't. So watch your spending.

In just a short time, the Chibi Noodle Avatar has become quite popular in some circles. At some events, I've seen close to a dozen of them. To make matters more interesting, a Noodle Dragon themed sim has sprung up. Called "Noodle Kingdom," it's on the sim on the map appropriately named "Cute." The sim has some Asian-themed structures up. But there are also some definitely non-Asian places such as a Subway-themed restaurant. The sim is fairly new, with shops moving in. So there will likely be changes in the days and weeks after this article.

So what's the future for the Chibi Noodle Dragon? As there have been "must-have" avatars before, one can easily dismiss them as another fad that after a short time in the spotlight fades into the background. But that someone was willing to put down enough cash to get a noodle dragon themed sim is evidence that some are willing to bet money that the demand for the avatars and their products will be around for a while.

I've heard comparisons to the pony avatars, which eight years after their introduction still have a strong following. Unlike the ponies however, the Noodle Dragons don't have stories to help backup roleplay in the fandom. But as the stories the pony sims base their RP off of are from cartoons aimed at young and teenage girls and young women, it's fair to say the dragons have greater appeal to guys.

While nothing is certain, it's a good bet the Chibi Noodle Dragons will have a following for some time to come.

Bixyl Shuftan

Xymbers' Avatar Reviews: The DreamCrawler Dragon

By Xymbers Slade

Waltzing about the social islands one afternoon I ran into a mesh dragon that looked remarkably like a Seawolf, and I went "Oh, did Seawolf update their dragons to mesh?" -- well, they didn't; this dragon is by DreamCrawler, and at a hefty pricetag of $4700L (!), you're going to have to decide for yourself whether the price is worth the avatar. According to the 50-some positive reviews for the various breeds of this particular dragon (for each breed), I'd say the avatar creator is making quite a lot of $L.

This dragon follows the rest of the DreamCrawler line of avatars; you buy the dragon and get a few "soul gems" that determine its color (buying a dragon gets three gems, each with a different base texture that goes over the dragon mesh). You wear the dragon (itself a solid black blob until you pop in a soul gem), wear the variety of horns (several types) or ear fins (one type) you like, then wear a soul gem and boom, the dragon mesh is colored. This dragon currently has three styles: "Nocte" (mostly reds, oranges and blacks, making me think of volcanic dragons), "Voluptas" (Purples and blues that make me think ice or crystal), and "Marenostrum" (blues and whites mostly, ice drakes).

I grabbed myself a Nocte, popped in a soul gem and went to wander some sims. The animations on it are exceptionally well done and I got a lot of compliments on it. If anyone whined, it was about how the claws appeared "clipped" instead of full-on claws, but you can only do so much with mesh and that's just a minor thing. Flying is good, and every so often the animation has the dragon doing a little mid-air flip if you're hovering idle somewhere. The dragon does not come with a saddle but I think with a little bit of work one could be modified to work with the dragon. The breath weapon is customizable, with three different breaths (fire, frost, or poison gas), and the colors of the breath weapon are editable (one color for starting particles, one for ending particles).

It's not without its flaws. The hud has an expressions tab that has the names of the expressions in a tiny, almost unreadable font that almost requires the hud be resized, especially if someone has bad eyesight (on the plus side, my experience was that dreamcrawler avatar huds are slow to respond... not so with this one). When in flight, the head bobs and weaves, meaning you're not getting a direct line from your breath weapon, but a spray/blast all over the place like a firehose. There's no talkjaw, but this seems to be a theme with mesh objects, so I can let that slide. If you want more colors you have to buy more soul gems, and last I checked, extra color schemes were $999L each for a pack of 3. That's expensive when the easier way would be to add a colorchange hud like the mesh dinosaurs of Prehistorica... which would allow for individual customization of various parts of the dragon rather than just layering over one color scheme.

If anything, the real "flaw" is its price. I do not think any avatar with the current level of SL-tech is worth nearly $5000L. A well made dragon like the dragon from Spider Productions is half that (and has options for biped or quad when the Dreamcrawler is just a quad), and this DreamCrawler dragon certainly fits the definition of well-made. That's really the only reason (other than the "blurry" low rez hud, or at least it was blurry to me) that it gets Four Dragon Hoards out of five. If you can afford it, great, because you won't be unimpressed by it. If you can't afford it, there are cheaper just as good mesh dragons out there.

The Dreamcrawler dragon can be found on the Marketplace (here).

Avatar Review: Seawolf Dragon

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

When most people hear Seawolf, they think of an awesome, apparently affordable dragon avatar. Well, that's not entirely true. While it is a dragon avatar, and some aspects of it are awesome, overall, it's not as great as most people think it to be.

Firstly, the avatar is above most people's price range. While there are 3 of these dragon avatars, giving people the choice of a cheaper smaller version, over a large, and expensive version, the cheapest of these is still L$ 1200. While some people would gladly pay that much for an avatar, that looks this cool, it's still asking for so much, to give the buyer, so little, compared to the amount the buyer pays.

While you do receive two dragon avatars, in the juvenile, they are not really that different, in fact I will be talking about that soon. Also, you don't really receive very many attachments, and variations. You really only get a small bit, after paying a large amount.

Like I said before, the two avatars aren't really that different. Actually, looking closer, you can see that almost all of the biped parts, are simply parts from the quadruped avatar, just moved around. The few parts that aren't from the quad avatar, include the hands, the tail, the head, jaw, and the neck. The rest of the parts, were just moved around, stretched, and rotated to fit. You basically pay 1200 L to get the same avatar, twice.

When in flight, the wings always flap, however, they aren't that great of wings for flapping. There is really only 2 parts, on each wing, that actually rotates with the flapping. The part that connects the wing to the body, is the first part. This part ends before it passes the first claw on the wing. The second part is the rest of the wing, which starts where the first part ended. This makes the wings flap as if they were hitting a box, on their way down.

Flying doesn't look so good on the juvenile avatar either. I understand that they are supposed to be young, and learning to fly, however, that does not mean they bounce around as they fly. It gets a bit confusing to a lot of people, while flying in mouselook, since they're bouncing around too much.

However, there are good things about the avatar too. They do look like dragons, which is something, considering most dragon avatars don't even resemble dragons. They have mouselook breaths, which makes them good for use in roleplay sims. They also have a color change hud, which makes it possible to get more colors, than other avatars have.

Despite the fact that these avatars have many cons, they are still some of the best avatars in Second life. All in all, these avatars are on a class all their own, when it comes to greatness.

Theonlyjohnny Resident

Avatar Review: Spider Productions Dragon Guardian

By Xymber Slade

Wandering around Second Life, these days I tend to wander the Social Islands, where new residents start out. In between dodging simcrashers, trolls, religious nuts, "free lindens, click here" signpost-wearing bots, and mic-screamers, I came across someone wearing a huge mesh dragon. It was really well done and when I found out the dragon was by Spider Productions, my interest was raised (as I have some of their original dragons and they do good work). Naturally, I hopped over to the Spider Productions mainstore to have myself a look.

Spider Productions makes quite a lot of things, from medieval armor and weapons, some jewelry, to multiple avatars (the Dragon Lord, an anthro shark, an anthro fox and a "freak" which looks like a rabbit-ized version of a Crux).

This newest mesh dragon of theirs is billed as "over one and a half years of blood, sweat, patience and experimentation" and quite honestly I think they did a good job. The dragon stands in at about three or four times the height of a normal human avatar (about the size of an adult Seawolf dragon, for comparison). It's very Godzilla-like in its bipedal form, which was a slight turn off for me but I quickly put it out of my head as I messed about with the HUDs. There are quite a lot of different options on an actions hud, 12 different dragon sounds (the roar of which they reuse from their original dragons, but I think that's a shortcut they're allowed to take), and they can both take a rider and carry people in their claws while flying (which is something I haven't tried yet).

The work that went into this avatar is plainly visible, and the only complaints I had while stomping around with it (there's a "stomp footstep" sound that can be toggled on and off) was that the anatomy looked a little weird and that the body shouldn't be supported on such short thin legs. Well tough, this is Second Life, things can look how we want them to look (grin) These dragons are also able to go into a quad mode (there's a shape and a mod attachment to move the feet to the right shape, though to me the movement makes it look like the dragon is crawling on his knees).

Overall, I think Spider Carnot (the maker of this dragon) outdid himself. Certainly they're much better than his original bipedal ones (of which I have a few). At 3000 $L, I think it's a bargain considering how much work obviously went into making this avatar work. I'm going to give it a full five dragon hoards out of five because to give anything less would be a crime. About the only bad thing that might be a put-off would be the price, but the price is reasonable. I ended up looking at the other dozens of dragons I have in my inventory and went to myself, "People are going to have to go mesh or go home..."

Spider Productions and the avatar itself can be found both on the Marketplace and at the Arachnid Island (129, 243, 376).

Xymbers Slade

Battlebeasts' Release Party

Last week, the Battlebeasts held their launch party, with live music by a variety of residents, hunts to find things, and of course, the Battlebeasts themselves. While I didn't buy any myself (I burnt out on the Meeroos, having about 112 of the things at one point), the event kicked off strongly and everyone had fun all around.

There were some technical glitches (mostly waiting a couple hours after launch before the Battlebeasts were able to be purchased, and an upgrade to the food that was recently released because LL broke something -else- that didn't need fixing) but for the most part it looked like a smooth run. There was also a hunt going on for tiny buyable crystals with extra toys and shinies hidden in them, but my attention was elsewhere and I didn't stay long in any one place to really go looking for them.

Already there seems to be more things in the works. I saw scattered "Dragon Crystals" around and I was told their use would be revealed in a week or so. I haven't playtested the battlebeasts myself, but I may in the future once more varieties come about. Single dragons cost just shy of 700 $L, with bigger packs costing more (1825, 3600, and 5000). The dragons currently come in six scaled patterns (Orange, Green, Azure, Blue, White and Black, with Blue being more of a purplish hue than the Azure) and six "glass eye colors" (Green, Blue, Red, White, Orange and Purple). I'll be doing a follow up in a few months to see what other things are released or come down the Battlebeast line, and will write about them here.

Battlebeasts currently can be found at Divine Dragons At Omega [Serena Becuma (227, 194, 23)], GeneSys Breedables Rental Office [TK Genesys (45, 210, 21)], The Knights of Battlebeast [Amon Ambar (175, 185, 22)], Blue Fusion Lost City of Breedables [Blue Fusion Breedables (204, 127, 21)],St Georges [Britannia (181, 116, 21)], Rainbow's End Breedables [Whispering Angels (97,111,25)], Wheels Family Breeding and Auction [Seadramon (108, 72, 1001)], and Xxtreme Oasis Breedables 2, [Xxtreme Oasis Breedables2 (224, 45, 21)] --- although I am sure more stores will be cropping up soon.

Xymbers Slade

Dranopia Quest

A few days ago, something called the Dranopia Quest was advertised on the login screen, and curious, I came to check it out.

Visiting the Dranopia Quest area, you begin on a huge island in the sky, with the "rules" of the area over on the nearby wall. Your goal is to hop on a dragon, descend into the canyon below and try to collect as many gems as possible. It sounds simple enough until you remember that the physics of SL and riding flying animals absolutely sucks (I speak from my experiences as a gryphon with a saddle; if you bank, you either do a barrel roll or just tip over) and that there's an additional little difficulty spike in the game: You only have four minutes to snag the gems.

According to the wall of information, you get a choice of dragons to ride: Water Dragons add Endurance (ride a dragon for too long and it despawns; these last longer), Earth Dragons add Stability (not sure what this was), Fire Dragons add Speed, and Air Dragons add Agility (easy to control). In my first time there, I saw no difference in power, but that was just because the place was packed --- the place's a homestead, and almost at all times of the day and night it had the full 20 people on it. The whole place is a no-fly zone, fortunately there's a sign you can click for a landmark back to the top, or an "elevator" to bring you back up.

I like being able to control my character; in the various racing games I played as a kid, I always played a character with great control, not so high damage output or speed. So originally I selected Earth dragons for stability, until I found the Air dragons were much easier to control (especially at off-hours of the night when less people were around and the lag wasn't so bad). You move with the arrow keys; be sure to turn off local chat. Otherwise you'll be left typing a long string of Es and Cs as pressing E makes it go skyward and pressing C noses it into a steep dive. The diamonds themselves are worth points, with white ones (1), yellow (2), green (5), blue (10), and pink (20), and if you're thinking about flying through the same gem more than once for point-spamming, they don't register on the third fly-through (nevermind it's almost impossible to orient and do a second run through the same gem let alone a third time).

The obstacles include floating trees that make you lose control if you hit them, and the Groms --- enemies that bear a strong resembelance to the Malboros of Final Fantasy 6. Hit the former, and you'll go bouncing out of control, as they're physical objects. The same will happen if you hit the trees on the ground. Hit the Groms, and your points are blanked. This is not a good thing, as you want the most points you can in the 4 minutes alloted.

The one with the highest points by Febuary 9th wins a $20,000 $L voucher for the Dranopia sim, where you can buy the dragons themselves to decorate your home. As I understand it, the dragons are also breedables, but there doesn't seem to be much variation other than the four elements (and the fact they can be ridden).

Now, I know that flying on ridables isn't the most stable thing in Second Life. I have several quad avatars (yes, people can "ride" me) but the control is utter crap. And by that I mean there's absolutely no control at all. If you bank, you're going to tip over or do a barrel roll and then end up upside down. Control WAS crap while the place was packed to bursting, but when the place was empty it was a lot easier (not turn-on-a-dime easier, but still it's better than most flying areas that I've seen in SL).

Sniffing around a bit more, I tracked down one of the sim creators, Leni Galli. English wasn't her first language, so I have edited the interview slightly for a little bit of clarity.

Leni Galli: Hello, nice to see you.
Xymbers Slade: One sec while I get a good screenshot and then I'll ask a few questions. (smile)

Leni Galli: Sure (smile).

Xymbers Slade: Ok, the first thing I wanted to ask, for those who haven't seen the quest area yet, what exactly is the Dranopia Quest you set up?

Leni Galli: First it is a fun game, and second it is to make Dranopia more popular (grin).

Leni Galli: Do you need more information about the game?

Xymbers Slade: So I see. I thought it was just something standing alone... and instead it's something to bring attention to this sim as well. :) How long did it take to create the Quest? It looks like it took quite a bit of effort to get it underway.

Xymbers Slade: And sure, more information about the game itself would be helpful (smile).

Leni Galli: Yes you are right, the Quest should draw some attention to Dranopia and to make it more interesting. Not only for breeders but also for people which like beautiful landscapes and storylines. We love to create landscapes and items with a lot of details especially sculpted prims and now also mesh prims. We needed one year to create Dranopia itself and the game was actually just a add-on for our breeders. But we are surpised that so many people are interested in it. The game is set very simple...you just have to fly around and collect gems/diamonds in order to earn points in 4 minutes and expands the story about Dranopia itself.

Xymbers Slade: So these dragons are breedables as well? Do you find you get a lot of business, what with the other breedables in SL being quite popular (especially the Meeroos)?

Leni Galli: Yes all of the dragons are breedables but we do not mention this because the word breedables seems to have sometimes a bad reputation. We can not compare ourself to the Meeroos because they are so big and popular and have a lot more experience than we do.

Xymbers Slade: Good point. I keep thinking that with the Meeroos available it's difficult to compete. In programming the quest, what was the biggest coding problem... or was there anything you wanted to do but could not? And what are the difference in abilities of the dragons? Other than looking pretty, that is. (smile)

Leni Galli: We hope to be as popular as they are one day.

Leni Galli: Oh yes we had so many great ideas but couldn´t realise all of them since we do not have that much space and too little preems. For example we would have liked the Groms to have an AI.

Leni Galli: Not only that the dragons look different and pretty but they also have different flight characteristics. For example the air dragons has agility, fire has speed, earth has stability and water has endurance.

Xymbers Slade: What do you mean by Endurance exactly? Do the dragons die off if ridden too long?

Leni Galli: Endurance means that they are able to fly longer in contrast to others. The dragons don´t die when you fly them to long, but they get tired over time and need a rest.

Xymbers Slade: What are the prizes for the Quest?

Leni Galli: if your name is on 9 February at the scoreboard, 1st place is a 20000L$ voucher, 2nd is a 5000L$ voucher, third is a 2500L$ voucher, and fourth through tenth is one Dranopia Starter Kit with a value of about 1850 $L. The voucher can be redeemed in the Dranopia Shop or Timmi Allen Team Shop.

Xymbers Slade: Ah, vouchers for Dranopia products, I am assuming. I take it the dragons will need food/water the same as any other breedable? (smile)

Leni Galli: yes, but they only need food. Other things are available, but they are not necessary in order to keep the dragons alive.

Xymbers Slade: What's next for Dranopia? Do you have any major plans to expand or add?

Leni Galli: Next, we plan the path of the ancients, and a "release" function. There will be the ability to release your Dragon into freedom. Your Dragon will say GoodBye and leave a crystal behind in order to be remembered by you. That special crystal can be kept as a souvenir and is able to give you ongoing information about your released dragon and its ancestors.

Xymbers Slade: That sounds like it will be very interesting to see once you bring it out (smile). That wraps up my list of questions; I'll write up a little review and point you to it when it goes up on the Newser. Should be sometime this week. :) Xymbers Slade: Here's hoping you become as popular as the Meeroos (smile).

Leni Galli: Oh thats so nice. Thank you very much and thank you also for your time, interest and support! Have a great time!

I'm giving it a strong 4 Dragon Hoards out of Five. I would have given it five out of five easily: the concept works and the effort really shows, but SL's screwed-up physics and the lag of a full sim really took away from it. Of course, now that it's out of the spotlight on the main login screen, it -should- be easier to navigate.

You can find the Dranopia Quest at Virtual Services (138,140,205), the Dranopia shop can be found at Sculptie Wonder (87,74,1020), and the main Dranopia area is at Sculptie Wonder (213,12,21). Hurry before Febuary 9th ends!

Dranopia can also be seen at www.dranopia.com.

Xmbers Slade

*Note* - Dranopia Quest has a lot of mesh objects, so a mesh-capable Viewer is needed.

The Bergons: Second Life's Newest Pet Dragon

While out visiting Caledon the other day, one of the residents got into a huuuuuuuuuuuge dragon, larger than even the Seawolves I've written about before (not much bigger, but it WAS bigger). It looked like something out of the Isle of Wyrms (same visual feel at first glance, anyway), and after engaging the avatar's owner in some dialogue and doing an object profile to see who made it, headed to the EQuality and Teagan sims to have myself a look.

What I found were the Bregons, which are small breedables of the same kind of breedable thing that everyone seems to be into these days. I knew there were horses and rabbits out by various makers, it was only logical that the fire-spewing beasts of lore were not far behind. I've never understood the thrill of having breedables, as they're usually physical objects that aren't (in my opinion) animated very well and lag down the sim that they're on. Then again, I fell for the My Little Pony craze earlier, so it's pot calling kettle black. :)

The Bregons are listed as being able to grow from hatchling to breedable. All you need to start is an egg and some "food", both purchasable from the sim the Bregons are sold. After clicking on the egg, it hatches after a given amount of time (I have not experimented with it) into a female or male with a 50/50 chance of either. As long as the "food" is close by, the dragon will continue to grow from hatchling, to baby, to youth, to adult, to breedable. As the Bregons I saw roaming the sim were all the static, moving-in-spurts-poorly-animated variety (Four-legged non-avatars are not SL's specialty, it's the same reason I have yet to see centaurs done well) and I remembered from my early days in SL how much I didn't like what breedable dragons there were at the time, I was not interested in them too much.

The notecard I got for the Bregons says that it takes 12 hours after a dragon hatches (with "food nearby) to become a Baby. Babies come in 135 different random skins, 115 different eye textures, 34 spike textures (with 4 main different shapes), and 60 different wing textures. All generated randomly, therefore the chance to get the same one is very low. I went down the notecard and it looks like there are various "types" of Bregons: A, B, H, and J (with sub-types A+, B+,H+, J+, A++,B++,J++, H++, and 6 queens). What followed was a lengthy list of what happens when you cross one breed with another, which made me think of some kind of genetics chart listing -all- possibilities. Well-thought out, at any rate.

After the baby hatches, it takes 5 days to turn a baby dragon to a youth. Then another 10 days after that, from youth to adult. After that, -75- days to go from Adult to Rideable and Eternal (20% chance; Eternals don't die). The food bowls only last fifteen days, meaning you need to buy more in order to make sure the dragon grows to full size. They stop growing if they run out of food (I don't know if they can die, but I did not test them out on my own as I am not going to spend all that time waiting for them to grow).

With timers like that, I am wondering why one would go through all the patience required to get their very own breedable dragon, when there are already many breedable avatars out there (both the Seawolves and Spider Productions dragon avatars have rezzable saddles, for example). I asked the sim owner (ED Exodus), and he said "The whole point of doing them was for fun really, but I was shocked how huge the breedable market is in SL and how fast it grows. I agree with you that getting an av dragon that you can ride will be much cheaper, but I can say 90% of the people buying Bregons are not looking at them as a rideable dragon... more than just a way to do business and money."

The Bregons also have a "breeder" (which I think is sold separately, as I didn't stick around long enough to check), which naturally requires a male and a female Bregon to be close to each other in-world in order to "breed" and produce a new egg. The Bregons are labeled to be transfer, from eggs to full grown rideables, so that is definitely an unusual way to start up a business breeding different eggs and trying to catch them all, so to speak.

While camming around the sim I came across a Staff of Jewels. Apparently if you have the staff (500L) rezzed, the dragons generate points toward free Bregons products and merchandise. I could see an idea like that being very beneficial to several other businesses. I also came across a series of one-time-use jewels (100L per Jewel) that enable you to change the look and appearance of all Bregons in its radius in various ways (different jewels for wings, spikes, etc). Naturally, a hud of some kind would be easier, but sims ain't going to support themselves on their own! ;)

I'm going to give this a guarded Four Dragon Hoards out of five. This guy obviously put in a LOT of work to make these two sims work into a bustling business (he did say he was surprised by the way the breedables took off in SL). He is obviously Doing Something Right. Breedables in general are not my thing, but if you're into the breedables, then visiting the EQuality and Teagan sims, where these things are sold, might be something to check out.

Xymbers Slade

Dragon Avatar Review

So, wandering the Grid, I decided to go out and revisit some of my favorite dragon avatar makers. Dragons of all shapes and sizes are one of the less common avatars I see these days, so I thought that spotlighting a few of them, people would know that they're out there and available for purchase.

My first stop on my list was the Isle of Wyrms. It's a big place, very mountainous, with a giant cathedral where the dragons are sold.

The first thing I noticed about the Isle of Wyrm dragons is that they are ornate. Very reminiscent of Eastern dragons. They're also very static. The last time I had one of these, there were no or very few flexiprims. With all the dragons that are out there with flexis for the wings, this could be a point that hurts them just a little bit. They're very customizable, with dozens of scale textures/colors to choose from (per dragon), and they also have a Bast and an Anubis dragon which is something I haven't seen others try to recreate.

The second thing that I noticed is that the dragons seem to be in a "limited edition" or limited hatching (there were only 3 fire dragons left when I dropped by, for example). I am not a part of the Isle of Wyrms groups so I don't know if it's a RP reason behind the limited hatchings or not, so you will have to visit and see for yourself.

The third thing I noticed is that they are *pricey*. Adults cost 3500 L. That's the most expensive dragon I've seen on the grid so far. Is the price too high? I don't know, I don't build so have no "effort-to-cost" appreciation.

RATING: 2 Dragon Hoards out of 5. I'm biased, they're just not my style and I personally think they're too expensive for their appearance. Your milage may vary. If they weren't popular to begin with, however, they would have disappeared from the grid entirely due to lack of business. So clearly the Isle of Wyrms is doing something right.

Next Stop: Grendel's Children.

If you haven't heard of Grendel's, find it in Search. Now. They've been around a long time and at least to me, have become a synonym for quality content, variety of all kinds of avatars and inexpensive pricing.

There are two varieties of their dragons. Their originals ... *does a double take* Oh hey, they're 0 $L now. I remember when they were 500. Anyway, their originals are larger than a normal avatar and are very very well done, with flexi-tails, extra purchasable breath weapons (15 $L, last I checked) and excellent scale detail.

Their most recent versions are more sculpty, more flexi, more detailed, and less expensive than others, costing about 500 $L. They have them in Plains, Canyon, Forest and Ravine dragon varieties.

They have a lot of other types of dragons (eastern chinese dragon avatars spring to mind) and a few two-legged varieties as well.

RATING: 4 Hoards out of 5. Good variety and very low pricing make it the perfect spot for those of you who want dragons but are on a budget.

Next, it was off to Kinzart Kreations.

They have four varieties: Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern. They're not quads, they're anthropomorphic. So if you're looking for the four-legged kind, look elsewhere. Variety is large and prices are good (1000 to 1500), and the style is a bit unusual. The Northern Dragons look a little bit like a winged lion with horns (lack of better words, it's in a good way), the Eastern variety have a definite chinese feel to them, while the Southern ones look like something reminding me of Bahamut (and it would not surprise me if that was the inspiration).

The avatars come in decorative boxes, which is a nice touch. I had several eggs in my hoard on my home sim for the longest time, having bought almost every variety of two different varieties (at least until the next shiny thing came along).

RATING: 3.5 Hoards out of 5. The effort shows and it's a nice choice if you want an unusual style in your dragon.

After that, it was time for a quick trip to the Spider Productions vendor in the Northstar Mall.

They're a maker of anthro dragons as well (no quads here) but the textures are very very good and the animation of flight is one of the better ones I have seen on SL. They too have their dragon boxes as collectable decorative eggs, and on top of that, their dragons are rideable in the same way a normal four-legged dragon is, which is unusual. I haven't seen many anthropomorphic dragons that have a saddle option.

They are EXPENSIVE : 2800 $L for either gender (each sold separately). However, this time I will say the work shows and this is a reasonable price for such a dragon (I would have charged maybe 2000, but I'm not the creator so what do I know). The hands are posable, the wings and eyes are recolorable, and they advertise a "hud packed with tons of features but only one script" --- I have three of these dragons, and I can vouch that this is a non-laggy dragon. :)

RATING: 4 Hoards out of 5. They could use more scale colors (even though they have about a dozen), and they should probably put both genders in one box, in my opinion. Their female dragon is a bit "blocky" in the chest, but I guess that's what one gets when one is effectively having a scale-armor bra stuck to your chest (grin).

Final stop, the Seawolves.

Everyone by now has had to have seen one. You know, the sim-sized reptilians stomping about or flying through the skies (and when I say sim-big, I mean they are huge, approximately 30 meters long and ten high for their Ancient size). They have juvenile and adult varieties too, which are Big and then Really Big, but I think it is the Ancient ones that they are known for the most. The price is good for all the work, too... about 2400 $L.

These gigantic behemoths are not for the lesser of heart (or lesser of computers --- if you have a slow computer, the ancient ones are not for you). If you are looking for something to sit around in and people watch, though (and be seen from two sims away if you have draw distance maxxed), this is your dragon.

In my opinion, their hud can only be described as a work of art. You drop new textures into its inventory and can then use those to style almost any part of the dragon. It already comes with a lot of options; the fact that the hud is so easy to use after adding your own is what I enjoy the most.

There are two types of breath weapons (fire and ice); click and fire a ball, hold and breathe a stream. They also come with a biped version (standard avatar size) of the same dragon, which is just as easily customizable as the quad version.

RATING: 5 Hoards out of 5. The only downer is that if you don't have a high-powered computer and you get an Ancient, your computer will scream, cry and melt (and probably make other low powered computers cry, as well).

So there you have it, a look at just a few dragon makers of SL.

Xymbers Slade