In this review, we get to take a look at one of Tokushi’s most amusing-looking creations; the Weedy Sea Dragon. Obviously a seahorse relative, this avatar started off as a bit of a playing around with sculpts before turning into a full avatar. Because it doesn’t include all the features we’ve become used to in Tokushi avatars, it is offered at a lower price.

Out of the Box:

Build and Skin:

(Correction, this IS a real world creature! Click here for reference photo!) Each of the textures, whether body or attachment are decent; though not as well done as some prior Tokushi avatars. However, the markings on the Weedy Sea Dragon are colourful and were apparently thought out. For the most part, while there isn’t a large amount of shading or highlights to give the skins depth, the skin remains ornate and decorative. The sculpt quality and build quality are up to Tokushi’s self-set standards, with no wrinkling and minimal creases between sculpts themselves. The avatar comes with one unisex skin and shape.

Attachments:

Lower Body:

The Tokushi Weedy Sea Dragon is a relatively simple avatar without too many bells and whistles, which is reflected in its pricing. Starting at the feet, users are given 3-toed paws with coloured webbing between the toes. There are no leg attachments of any kind because these attachments are perfectly sized and proportional to the leg structure. The claws at the end of the feet are sharp-looking and suit the avatar.

The more ornate feature of the lower body is the tail; which is, for the most part a simple, tapering appendage almost as tall as the avatar itself. The tail is sculpted and non-moving, and while looking very straight, does look smooth enough to be a believable tail. However, it is the parts coming out the dorsal side of the tail that really make it stand out. Near the base is a single semi-transparent fin, but as the eyes move towards the end of the tail, we see almost tree-like stumps making way to bundles of colourful leaf-like structures.

These leaf-life structures will become a theme all throughout the avatar, and come together to make the avatar all the more decorated. Altogether, the tail has come together quite nicely and adds to the avatar’s image as a whole.

Upper Body:

The hands do not have any poses or movements, just static fingers arranged in a relaxed pose. The structure is fairly similar to that of the feet with claws on the ends of the 4 fingers, and again the coloured webbing between digits. The size of the hand attachments is appropriate enough that users do not need to use any wrist prims to smooth the transition between hand attachments and the arms. Instead of wrist prims, the avatar has more of those interesting tree-trunk structures giving way to a single, larger ‘leaf’ at the back of the elbow.

On the back of the avatar, between the shoudlers, is still more of these tree-trunks, but with the same kinds of bundles we saw on the tail. They aren’t arranged as wings, but in a triangle on the back which adds a nice visual aspect no matter which angle the user is looking. This forms the central piece of the trail of the tree-like structures which start at the end of the tail, up the back, and to the back of the head, where we discuss next.

Head:

The back of the Weedy Sea Dragon’s head is very ornate, with at least a few dozen little ‘leaf’-let structures arranged neatly. Users will find these structures linked not only to the head, but have their own attachments (like the ears), which allows users to selectively choose how much ornamentation they’d like to see on the head. As a whole, however, the arrangement does complete the aforementioned trail of these leaves, and gives the otherwise simple head some aesthetics.

The structure of the head heavily reflects the influence of the original animal on this avatar’s design. The head is very much what one could call ‘feral,’ with little to no anthropomorphic traits to it. As such, the eyes are placed on either side of the avatar’s face, and they stare out in opposite directions as one would expect. The eyes themselves are colour-changeable, have a few eyelid states, and users are able to change the dilation level of the pupils. For the most part, that covers many of the offered features of the avatar.

Finally, the most interesting feature on the face itself would have to be the snout-like structure that juts horizontally in front of the face. The head comes in two different versions; one with a short muzzle, while the other is at least twice as long. The snout itself is very simple, and doesn’t feature a mouth either; just the faint impression of an opening on the end. A fun feature for the snout itself is the ability to emit little bubble particles of varying sizes. It should be mentioned that the textures across the head really are a major part of the avatar.

A slight issue with the head is that it is not set perfectly on the body, so the snout tilts slightly to the avatar’s left side. This is not a deal-breaker, but for the meticulous user, you may want to adjust this. We admit a little surprise at this not having been picked up before selling, but as this is not meant to be a flagship avatar for Tokushi as much as a side-project, it is easily overlookable.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

This avatar is relatively light on all of the features, and as such the HUD deals mostly with the settings pertaining to the eyes. The following photo shows the HUD options.

The hoodie is a conventional one with sculpted sleeve cuffs and hood. There is also a part of the cloth for the mid-section that is fitted to the shape. Like we have seen in a different avatar, the part over the midsection lifts up to rest over the top of the tail-base. The general theme of the hoodie is a worn out, rough fabric with neat patches here and there. The Tokushi logo is grafted on the front and the back of the hoodie.

Customistation:

This avatar comes, as usual, modifiable and copiable, so users should be adequately able to play around with some of the structures on the avatar.

Conclusion:

This avatar is very much a curiosity. The avatar started off as a sculpt that was made for fun, and then developed into a unique and interesting creature. As with many avatars we’ve reviewed in the past, the Weedy Sea Dragon becomes quite the conversation piece and eye-catcher. Personally, I never thought of a Sea Horse becoming an avatar, and despite seeing pictures of this interesting animal in numerous cases before, I never made the connection between name and fish. All the same, the creators have done a good job of infusing their imagination with this visually interesting fish to recreate it into this colourful, ornate anthropomorphic creature.