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I just got the following notice from the Truth store update group.
TRUTH store is discontinuing all current mens and womens clothing along with the current hair textures.
~Hair~
Regular packs – 50L
Tip packs – 150L
Fat packs – 350LALL clothing marked down starting from 10L (excl. tattoos and shoes).
Retirement of items will run til further notice – NEW STORE COMING SOON!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Innisfree/131/49/537
SF Designs has a whole stack of freebies; some are just by the door near the tp point and some more are on a raised platform in the centre of the store. There’s so much on offer here I haven’t included snapshots of all of them
There are 3 pairs of suede creeper shoes here, in black, leopardskin (pimp-tastic) and blue (don’t step on my blue suede shoes). They’re all moddable, and they come out the box very big, so you may need to shrink-to-fit, although the black ones come in 2 sizes.
Next is a beach towel that you can either wear round your neck, or lay it on the beach and sit on it. Also showing the Hawaiian shorts from here too.
In a small box by the door there’s a pair of silver hoop earrings suitable for both guys and girls.
On to the many and varied clothes. There’s a bag of band t-shirts mainly of British 90s bands, and some assorted other t-shirts including the white tiger and the “Creation” t-shirt based on Michaelangelo’s famous painting in the Cistine Chapel. There’s a set of 4 buttoned piped shirts in 4 dark colours. There’s ankle socks in 6 colours, a footy kit in 2 colours (along with a football as well), denim jeans and jacket, camo shorts, jogging pants, even a wacky St Patrick’s Day top hat. I’ve shown just a few of the outfits here.
Total cost: L$0
Macho Merch is a men-only shopping mall in Rughster Bay, and a few of the vendors here have free items on offer.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rughster%20Bay/45/160/32
First up, the mall itself has 2 promo t-shirts, in Red or Grey. The grey one is shown here, they’re on opposite sides of the main tp point.
.
.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rughster%20Bay/70/166/32
Next, “It’s A Guy Thing” has a bag of freebie shirts, and another shirt on the wall which are free. The freebie bag includes fan shirts for New England Patriots, and Aerosmith.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rughster%20Bay/110/205/32
Lennards offers a free armband tattoo which is offered on undershirt, shirt and jacket layers.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rughster%20Bay/33/150/32
Finally at YJ’s there’s a set on offer that includes a silver ring, and an arm tattoo (undershirt layer only). YJ’s also has some multipack t-shirts and vests that probably count as costing L$1 or less each. The packs cost L$5, and contain 6 shirts each, different colours. I didn’t actually buy any of these, but I did take a snapshot of the boards on the wall to give you an idea.
While I’m on the subject of malls, here’s a little tip. It’s notoriously difficult to find items you want in a mall. If you use the Release Candidate viewer, so that the new Search All works, there’s an easy way. First pull up the search page for the mall (you can type the mall’s name in search to find it easier). Now on that page will be a list of all items offered for sale, along with their price (usually). Scroll down the page, find the items listed free, and make a note of the co-ordinates of that item.
Now open up your map and click on it, using trial-and-error, until you click on or near to the co-ordinates you noted for the free item. Those co-ordinates will be displayed in the panel to the right of the map. When you’ve got the right spot, close the map and now you’ll have a big red beacon marking the location you’re looking for. Your free item will be somewhere close to that beacon. To make the trial and error a little easier, the first co-ordinate runs west-to-east (zero at west) and the second one from south-to-north (zero at south).
Total cost (of items modelled) L$0
Guys, it’s time for me to tell you about the SL Facts of Life.
The painful truth is that as a SL resident, you are lacking one important part of male anatomy. A cock. Now, if you have visited some of the freebie stores and picked up some freebie ones you have probably noticed just how awful they all are. Even if you’ve not worn one yourself, you’ve probably seen them, paraded by newbies in the welcome areas. Lets face it you can hardly fail to notice them, great big plastic pink or orange things sticking out of some guy’s crotch and waving around in everyone’s horrified faces.
So put those freebie plastic cocks in the trash and I’ll show you where to get a decent one.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Buffalo%20Run/167/34/60
(see the comments for an updated slurl of their new store in their own sim)
This is Midnight Lotus, and they do the best-looking freebie cock I’ve ever seen. The one you’re looking for is the Chrome edition, as opposed to the Silver and Gold which are scripted and not free. The Chrome edition comes in flaccid only, it’s not scripted, it won’t even show/hide, and it comes in 3 no-modifyable skin tones. There is also a small logo tattooed onto one of the balls.
But it’s sculpted, and the texturing is incredibly realistic, it’s a good size (generous without being ridiculous) and looks great just showing off on the beach. Midnight Lotus advertise it as being the best looking free cock in SL, and you know what? I think they’re right.
Total cost: L$0
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Truth%20Island/189/132/29
There are two great dollarbie styles for men (and some for women too) at Truth Hair. The first pictured here is “Kensei” which is on the wall in front of you when you tp in at the given landmark. The second, Danny, is behind you and just round the corner on the right. Both styles come in a fatpack of 72 colours (actually 24 base colours each with plain, dark-tips and light-tips variations).
The store does clothes too, although there’s no freebies on offer from the clothing line. I did however, join the update group, which promises freebies.
Total cost: L$2
http://slurl.com/secondlife/MHA%20Commercial%20City/28/103/30
House of Zen speciallises in oriental and formal mens attire. There are three freebie items on offer here; one t-shirt, one Japanese kimono and one Chinese outfit. I completed the Asian sort of look with the skin from my previous post about Lapointe & Bastchilde, and the Josh hair from Diversity, in black. Photos were taken at Silk Waters Mountain.
The Kimono is a winter-themed one, a little “novelty” maybe, with the snowman, but it is beautifully made and has flexi parts. The Chinese ensemble comprises a top (with or without sleeves) that can be teamed with either pants or traditional skirt. I’m informed that men did traditionally wear the skirt in China but it looks rather girly for my taste and I think I prefer it as the top and pants set. The whole ensemble is of red and black brocade. Last is the nice free t-shirt with the Japanese characters (which I assume says “House of Zen”, but who knows.)
Total cost: L$0
I received an email overnight from Bronte Wade of Velvet manor, who wrote to me with concern over the article I wrote about Velvet Free Boutique, in particular the reference to the hair I picked up there which turned out to be a ripped copy of Hyate Ewing’s “Shun” hair. Bronte was concerned that my article implied that Velvet Manor themselves were responsible for the theft.
I would like to apologise for this and make it clear that I do not believe that at all and it never was my intention to imply such a thing.
Generally speaking, items that have gotten onto the freebie or business-in-a-box circuit without the creator’s permission, have done so in one of two ways. Either someone with a copybot has deliberately copied the item and re-sold it. Or the creator has rezzed/sold a copy with the wrong permissions – and yes there are bugs in SL that will change the perms of an item even when you are absolutely sure you’ve set them correctly. Back when I was selling furniture, I had certain items that would ALWAYS vend with the wong perms no matter what I did.
Either way the distributor (or the reviewer) is not responsible for the theft. It is extremely difficult to find out what items are stolen and really the only way is to rely on word-of-mouth within the fashion industry. In the meantime, there isn’t really anything a distributor can do except take it on faith that the items you’re distributing are genuine. As for myself I have decided to err on the side of caution and cease reviewing freebie distribution stores, simply because the risk is too great that the items I’m reviewing are not genuine.
In any case, I spoke to Bronte this morning, and she is a very lovely and understanding person. I have agreed to re-word my original article, and post an apology (which I have now done). It is not my wish to cause any bad publicity to Velvet Manor and I sincerely apologise if my article has done so. I wholeheartedly approve of any genuine efforts to assist new residents and help them out with free items, and it is clear to me that Bronte is providing this service for just that reason.
It is my understanding that Bronte will be removing the questionable hair, and also contacting the creators of other items that she’s uncertain of. In return I have provided her with an alternative freebie hair, which I know to be genuine. I wish her and those associated with Velvet Free Boutique all the best.
It’s said that the eyes are the window to the soul, and if that’s true then you probably want something better than the plain ones that come with the standard avie. I’ve been wearing a variety of different eyes from various places, and I thought it about time to let you know where to pick up some of the better ones.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/MIA%202/190/205/22
First up, Body Basics (near MIA). Upstairs on the wall there’s a board with 35 different quality eyes in various colours including some unusual reds and purples. There is also a box on the floor with some more basic, but lower quality freebies. Also if you go round the avatars on the ground floor most of them also come with eyes included that are not necessarily part of either set.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Deva%20Loka/12/52/55
This landmark points to a wall in the Freebie Dungeon – I’ve linked to the exact spot here because specific items are so hard to find in this place. There are two sets here, the ones on the right are picked up individually by colour. To the left there’s another panel which says “L$20″ but they’re actually L$1, and the eyes inside do NOT match the pictures on the panel – there are no fantasy eyes here, they’re all realistic ones. However they are really good photo-quality eyes, and include a couple of true hazel shades which are so hard to find amongst freebies.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gallii/113/53/33
Finally the Free Dove has two sets of eyes right at the back of the store.
I’ve taken some shots of myself wearing my favourite shades (mostly inclining towards hazel tones)
From left to right: Body Basics #6, Freebie Dungeon “Fantasy” box Amarante, Free Dove Skye Bronze, Freebie Dungeon brown-rainbow.
Total cost: L$1
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kmadd%20Enterprise/185/73/25
KMADD Enterprises has a freebie table set out near the TP point (look to your left as you arrive from the above lm) which contains goodie bags from several of the designers included in the Fashion Consortium. The quality here is excellent, and everything is free. If you join the KMADD group (also free) there are more gifts including a set of free eyes. I particularly love the green sweater from Redgrave, with the scarf included in the (incredibly well-detailed) sweater texture. Some of the bags also contain other goodies besides clothes; there’s a pose stand, emoter hud and face lighter to help with your fashion photography ( hint – take your photos in a script-enabled location so they actually work), and other accessories including shades and mens jewelry.
Total cost: L$0
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Evocative/184/88/22
Lapointe and Bastchilde speciallise in gothic and cyberpunk clothing and they have a corner of their sim which is a freebie store of their own designed clothing for both men and women. And there is a LOT of stuff here. First notable item is a free male skin (there’s a female one as well). This skin is another Eloh Eliot derivative, which she has made available as a free skin to all. Again it’s a little on the feminine side for my taste, it even has a bit of eyeliner, but it goes well with the clothing range on offer at Lapointe.
I picked up the whole range of mens outfits from here, there’s even some mens jewelry if bling is your taste. The only things modelled that are not from here is the shoes (from Freebie Dungeon) and the hair (from Diversity). Some of the outfits (in pics 3, 5, and 11) come in assorted colours of which I’ve shown only one here. Most of the shirts are provided in both undershirt and shirt layer.
Total cost: L$0
