A gift from the friend who also gave me the Extrovirtual Grizzly avatar, this tiny hamster has left Southern Belles screaming about rats in clothing establishments (which has actually happened to me). In this review we further investigate Extrovirtual’s ability to create avatars that remain essentially feral and unique rather than ‘furry.’
- Hamster Ball not included.
Out of the Box:
- MOD/COPY/NO-TRANS
- Tiny avatar about the size of a 0.5m x 0.5 default cube
- Fully animated with a ‘Tinymatic Lite HUD’ for accessing options
- Includes sit, sleep, wave among other gestures
Build and Textures:
Wynx Wiplash has been a pioneer of sorts in the ‘tiny’ community, where her offering of avatars have added to the collective culture of SL citizens who call themselves Tinies. The hamster’s build is relatively simple, with non-sculpted prims making up the entire body, except for the head and the tail, where they count the most. From a first viewing, this avatar shows off elements of a chibi-type styling with a rounded figure and appendages.
The textures on the avatar give the impression of a furry pelt on the hamster, while leaving the paws furless like a real-world hamster. The most noteworthy part of the avatar itself would have to be the head, which gives the visage of a chubby-cheeked hamster. There is not much to describe that the pictures of the avatar itself cannot convey. If anything, the head is well sculpted enough to have invoked several comments of either wanting to hug the avatar or get a mousetrap. (It’s truly surprising how many people confuse the hamster with the regular rat).
Heads-Up Display and Animations:
As this is a tiny avatar, there is a need for an animation overrider to contort and fit the avatar shape in this tiny body. As usual for tiny products from Extrovirtual, default animations are included to allow the avatar to stand, walk, run, and even fly. These are nicely done and smoothly animated, though at times the shape underneath may un-distort, making the hamster look too tall. This is a common occurance with Tiny avs and is usually fixed by moving a touch in any direction. Included with the animations is a Tinymatic Lite Animation HUD. Using this HUD, the user can ‘emote’ in 6 ways. These emotes include crying, laughing, clapping, sitting, lying down, and waving.
Customisation:
The avatar is quite easy to customise, especially given the amount of tiny accessories available. I’ve since been able to stuff the avatar in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Canadian Mountie) outfit made by a third party without too much need for modification. The above picture shows the avatar in a limited edition space-suit from a different third party creator. The avatar is modifiable and copiable, so users can modify it to their heart’s content.
Conclusion:
For our first entry on the world of tiny avatars, this avatar has not dissapointed. It is well-rounded and portrays ‘cute’, much like it’s real-world counterpart. I also own another tiny avatar Extrovirtual (A wolf) from 2006. To see the development in style from that period to this avatar in 2008 is a pleasant experience, especially with how the sculpts have complimented the head structure.
