New Men's Body. Let's guess how much buy-in they'll get.

[Blaise Glendevon]

I only saw it because a creator I follow reblogged it on Twitter. I've never heard of this brand, otherwise. Looks like they've done minimal promotion and aren't announcing any brand partnerships. 

On the pros list, it looks like a body for all the guys wearing Maitreya+V-tech. On the cons list, there's literally no clothes for it. Also, no HUD. Launching new bodies without alpha cutouts has generally been a flop. What do you guys think?

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by Blaise Glendevon

[Rowan Amore]

A blog featuring this body...

https://armandparks.com/post/700132071578943488/portrait-1-armandparkscom-featured-second-life

[Ayashe Ninetails]

I believe this is the body I've been waiting for. Someone mentioned it in this forum a few weeks ago...I think? 

Off to demooooooooooooooooooooo!

Oh, before I do. From Rowan's linkie:

While you can wear Legacy compatible clothing with it it will appear baggy on the avatar. It is best to shop stores such as Gloom, Varsity, Nuage, CheerNO, Truame and others if you want compatible clothing and appliers that are fitted for the CZ Slim. 

Edit: If anyone's interested, the body is 2000L (yay!) and available HERE at the Men's Closet event.

If I can squeeze it into anything good, I'll let you guys know. Gonna grab a zillion demos from everywhere and see what I can come up with, if anything.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Ayashe Ninetails
Added infos

[Sparkle Bunny]

Might also be worth trying with old standard-sized meshes (since those generally come with alphas). But yeah, the guy has two other bodies on MP that nobody has ever heard of and seems to be the only one making clothes for them.

[Kathlen Onyx]

Hmm.  Not really liking it. It has no hips and looks like the torso was just stretched out. 

[Love Zhaoying]

2 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

I only saw it because a creator I follow reblogged it on Twitter. I've never heard of this brand, otherwise. Looks like they've done minimal promotion and aren't announcing any brand partnerships. 

On the pros list, it looks like a body for all the guys wearing Maitreya+V-tech. On the cons list, there's literally no clothes for it. Also, no HUD. Launching new bodies without alpha cutouts has generally been a flop. What do you guys think?

 

Thank you for posting this!  This slim physique is one of my favorites.

[Janet Voxel]

I dunno, guys are still wearing Aesthetic.....

I'd love to see a Dad-bod body though.

[Claireschen Hesten]

2 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

On the cons list, there's literally no clothes for it.

I saw several places supporting it on this weekends Happy Weekend offerings. I think lack of alpha cuts won't help it greatly, may put off some people. As far as bodies go it doesn't look bad if it was more in the realm of dad bod blubber over buff I'd be interested in it for my mAlt

[Ceka Cianci]

57 minutes ago, Janet Voxel said:

I dunno, guys are still wearing Aesthetic.....

I'd love to see a Dad-bod body though.

So would I, something really huggable..

We need more men in hug a bear Peter shape! \o/

hehehe

 

[Rowan Amore]

If more skin creators would just do dad bod skins, that would be a big help.  Stop with the overdone muscle definition.  Women are wearing belly rolls and cellulite as BOM layers.  Where's the love for the chubby guy add ons?

[Ceka Cianci]

As far as what goes on with mens bodies and what they are looking for and what drives them to get a certain body.. I really don't know..

I've dabbled with my husbands old account and most of the things he got in the short time were really alphed out to where the clothes really ended up shaping the body more than the clothes seeming like they were rigged for it.. but this was years ago and really that's about the only experience i have with them..

I think this thread will be an interesting read and hope to learn a lot from it. I'm out of my element here in a lot of ways.. hehehe

[KjartanEno]

I know there's practically no clothing for it yet. I think it is a bit overpriced for what is included. There is certainly room for additional body types on the grid, and I like to support a creator who isn't making yet another buff male body.

On the left, Signature Davis with Lelutka Ford head. On the right, CZ Slim with my own custom Bento head and face skin.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Okay, I've just played with the demo and went through the majority of my menswear inventory in addition to trying clothing demos from a number of stores.

Unfortunately, I won't be buying the body, but I reallllyyy do like it. But my reasons why it's not for me aren't exactly typical, so your mileage may vary. I just dress my males very unconventionally (you'll see what I mean), so certain things were deal breakers right off the bat.

 

The body itself (the good stuffs):

Woooo, it's kinda hot! It's pretty thin, but the sliders are very responsive IMO, so I was able to thicken it a bit and make it more on the slender side. You can thicken the legs as well. As for Sam's concern with the torso - that can be slidered away without much issue. The default shape is short and has the torso length set pretty long. Just tweak the torso and hip lengths and it's fine. He can also get pretty hippy, which I liked.

You also get a pair of separate high-positioned feet, which was my entire reason for checking out this body in the first place. More on that later.

Lastly, there are deformers included in the demo for the butt, the chest, and the shoulders. Not entirely sure why as they didn't seem to help with anything I was trying on, but hey, they're in there.

 

The bad stuffs:

The body itself does come with nails, but I didn't have any HUD whatsoever included in the demo, so I'm not sure how flexible all that is. I couldn't turn them off when trying out the high feet. Also, the nails are very short and kind of round. My current Legacy rings and nails do not fit, and this was pretty much a deal breaker for me right here. Lol, I'm sorry but I need my claws. MEOOWWOW 😼. It's hard enough finding stylish nails and rings in Legacy Male size as it is, and I've already got my favorite stores that do it. Not much chance I would find them in this form, and there's no way I'd even ask shops to do it since they've also got like 6 or more female bodies to rig for 😩.

Also not great - those high-heeled feet I mentioned. They come nowhere close at all to fitting Maitreya, Belleza (old), Slink, or Legacy F shoes. I tried a bunch. All a mile off, and no deformers included in the demo, so my guess is the intention is for stores to make separate shoes/heels/boots/whatever for this body alone. Again, a problem for me, considering the Maze high-heeled feet for Jake didn't take off (that I've seen, anyway) either. 

And lastly - yeah, having no alpha HUD is a challenge. Every single outfit I tried on needed something alpha'd out, and the majority of the time I spent fiddling with demos was spent going through my entire alpha library trying to find something that would work. There's a consistent issue when trying to pair Legacy clothes with this body that happens right near the front upper hip (exaggerated by my AO, so your mileage may vary here), and every alpha I tried completely missed the mark. GRRR.

 

Okay, as for "how do clothes fit, tho?," I tried pants/tops/outfits from *deep breath*...

Over, Strunsh, Enforcer, Duk, Traume, Gild, Furtacor, Noche, Cordewa, Amias, Bartimeu, Erauqs, Riot, Val'more, Mossu, Ascend, Varsity, AsteroidBox, and Nuage. 

Out of those, the stores I mentioned previously from Rowan's article only had one or two items for the body itself. As for "fits Legacy kinda sorta maybe" - the closest and best fit I could get with Legacy was from Strunsh and Over. AsteroidBox might be okay, too. I only tried one outfit from there and it seemed to fit decently.

The main issues that remain consistent are tops stick out way too much from the body to where they seem a bit floaty, pants have too much gap in the back waist (not quite fixable with slidering or the butt deformer - I tried), and the front hip glitch I mentioned earlier. If you're not opposed to creating custom alphas, maybe the pants issue isn't a big deal. But yeah, tank tops, button down shirts, tees, jackets, etc...they stick out enough to be noticeable, especially from the side. 

So unfortunately, I shall stick with my Legacy + female Slink feet patch job until something else comes along or maybe (hoping) this gets some updates (separate high-feet that can fit female shoes and an alpha HUD and maybe some built-in nail states and I'll figure out the rest! 😂). But if you're not bothered by ANY of my weirdo requirements - demo it anyway. It's super cute and shapes nicely!!

Edited November 8, 2022 by Ayashe Ninetails
I added the same store twice, oopsie!

[Eddy Vortex]

3 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

The body itself does come with nails, but I didn't have any HUD whatsoever included in the demo, so I'm not sure how flexible all that is. I couldn't turn them off when trying out the high feet. Also, the nails are very short and kind of round. My current Legacy rings and nails do not fit, and this was pretty much a deal breaker for me right here. Lol, I'm sorry but I need my claws. MEOOWWOW 😼. It's hard enough finding stylish nails and rings in Legacy Male size as it is, and I've already got my favorite stores that do it. Not much chance I would find them in this form, and there's no way I'd even ask shops to do it since they've also got like 6 or more female bodies to rig for 😩.

The nails are BoM so you can make your own nail polish with universal layers.  For claws, there's one store selling them for CZ - https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/DAMN-Vaernha-Nails-LegacyfmBelleza-JakeCZ-SlimDemo/23962362 

 

3 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Also not great - those high-heeled feet I mentioned. They come nowhere close at all to fitting Maitreya, Belleza (old), Slink, or Legacy F shoes. I tried a bunch. All a mile off, and no deformers included in the demo, so my guess is the intention is for stores to make separate shoes/heels/boots/whatever for this body alone. Again, a problem for me, considering the Maze high-heeled feet for Jake didn't take off (that I've seen, anyway) either. 

That's unfortunate for heels. I had better luck with closed toe shoes and boots.

 

3 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Okay, as for "how do clothes fit, tho?

So far, I found Lagacy pants fit better than others. The shirts in Jake and Lagacy sizes have huge gaps of space, sadly.  Some old TMP clothes may fit.  I still need to experiment more. 

 

What I like about the CZ Slim is the included female neck fit and has mod perms. As there is no point for Cat getting Maitreya if the clothes she prefers won't fit, so she never got the Lara. I had high hopes for CZ Slim because there aren't many Maitreya Flat chest hoodies floating around and the petite size is way too big on her.  

I managed to put together this one outfit with shorts from Amazing Creations in old TMP size and a blazer from HiS in Slink size. I'm surprised the Strunsh oxford shoes in Maitreya size fits her.  (Cat is wearing the CZ body with said outfit on the right.)

It took me nearly an hour of digging around in her inventory, unpacking boxes, and trying on every piece until she stops looking weird. I don't think many guys would be willing to dedicate a lot of time playing the clothing jigsaw puzzle.

I saw Traume has CZ clothes on offer for the Happy Weekend sale and quickly ran over to get a couple of pieces.  A rando there was so impressed with her looks that he brought her 3 fatpacks from the Agressive collection. O_O;

 

 

[HeathcliffMontague]

I'd say it takes all kinds. Be a dragon, a hippo, a zebra, a mermaid/man, it's your SL. If you want to look like this, go for it. Not my cup of tea - I mean it's a bit... extreme for me. I prefer a more natural, muscular look for myself, not this super skinny thing, but horses for courses. You be you and all that

[Stephanie Misfit]

Wow, this is a great looking body and I dare say something that a lot of people have been wanting for ages. But no alpha cuts on a body for guys? I just don't think that was too smart.

[Alwin Alcott]

looks very nice, but no alpha is a no for me at this moment.
Will for sure have a look at it to switch to it fulltime as soon there's more to wear on the market.

In the mean time i'll fiddle around  

Edited November 8, 2022 by Alwin Alcott

[Marianne Little]

It looks so much better than Slink male. 😍

I wish it could wear more clothes.

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

It looks so much better than Slink male. 😍

I wish it could wear more clothes.

It is awfully pretty without clothes!

[Gwin LeShelle]

Ooh gonna need to show this one to my hubby, he's not on in SL often tho but he always complained about Jake lolol 

And although he's a dad of our 3 kids he has no "dad bod" ( I don't like that term for some reason) he's still too slender and tall 😂 so that's what he would love in SL too ⁽⁠⁽⁠ଘ⁠(⁠ ⁠ˊ⁠ᵕ⁠ˋ⁠ ⁠)⁠ଓ⁠⁾⁠⁾

 

[BigMcIntoshSL]

21 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

Launching new bodies without alpha cutouts has generally been a flop. What do you guys think?

So, technically, IIRC, if you put the body in alpha mask mode, not blend, you can use the system alpha masks and they will work on the mesh body the same way they work on the system body. That was one of the things I liked about the old SLink redux body. However, I think your statement still rings true,  because we are just so used to alpha cuts at this point.

Overall, I like the geometry of the body. I think it serves a market for a male body type that often gets over-looked or requires deformers to achieve.

However, as many others have pointed out, if it fails to get significant third-party support, then it will not be a viable body. In this case, I think that would be a shame.

Edited November 8, 2022 by BigMcIntoshSL

[Modulated]

The body is not bad at all, but I can get nearly the same build with my male Physique body and there's more stuff for it in the wild.   If more creators jump on board for this body, I would perhaps consider it. The mesh body arena is crowded and this doesn't really have any stand above features or support to make it worth it's asking price IMO.

 

[Marianne Little]

31 minutes ago, BigMcIntoshSL said:

Conserning

So, technically, IIRC, if you put the body in alpha mask mode, not blend, you can use the system alpha masks and they will work on the mesh body the same way they work on the system body. That was one of the things I liked about the old SLink redux body. However, I think your statement still rings true,  because we are just so used to alpha cuts at this point.

Overall, I like the geometry of the body. I think it serves a market for a male body type that often gets over-looked or requires deformers to achieve.

However, as many others have pointed out, if it fails to get significant third-party support, then it will not be a viable body. In this case, I think that would be a shame.

Many creators does not bother with an alpha mask.

Oh yes, I have seen tutorials "how to make your own alpha mask". No way. I would have to log into the test grid for uploads, or pay a texture upload 2-3 times before it is right. Plus all the time spent. I don't want to do that work.

Making alpha masks for multiple clothes... Hard no.

It is many free packs of alpha layers, and they are a p_a_i_n to use. Nothing fits right, unless you have a very big garment and need an alpha for the whole torso, or the whole legs. It takes too much time. I often wear clothes just a few times, if I had just 3-4 outfits, it would be an easy thing to do.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

9 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

The nails are BoM so you can make your own nail polish with universal layers.  For claws, there's one store selling them for CZ - https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/DAMN-Vaernha-Nails-LegacyfmBelleza-JakeCZ-SlimDemo/23962362 

Ooooh, I didn't even realize they were BOM. I'm so used to fiddling around with applier HUDs for nails. Those nails you linked are a taaaad bit longer than I normally wear. I've mostly gotten lucky with RAWR and Veechi on that front. And Stunner Originals if I want something less deadly. 😂 I'll keep an eye out, but those stores already rig for sooo many different bodies.

 

9 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

That's unfortunate for heels. I had better luck with closed toe shoes and boots.

Admittedly, I didn't even try boots yet. The heels were all set way, way down from the foot. Like miles away, sinking into the floor. I figured they just weren't designed for female shoes at all. I've had very good luck pairing up Slink feet with Legacy Male (sufficiently hiding the hideous leg seams, of course), but silly me didn't even try doing that with this body yet. 

 

9 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

It took me nearly an hour of digging around in her inventory, unpacking boxes, and trying on every piece until she stops looking weird. I don't think many guys would be willing to dedicate a lot of time playing the clothing jigsaw puzzle.

Yup, this is definitely my concern, too. I've known a few male fashionistas who would gladly spend an entire day shopping, demoing, trying, troubleshooting, alphaing, resizing, and magicking themselves into a new wardrobe, but I highly doubt that's very typical or common. I got tired of doing that myself with V-Tech/Lara Flat, which is how I wound up with Legacy in the first place. A few extra muscles vs. whole days spent trying to squeeze myself into new clothes? Sure!

If more clothing (and shoes) come out, I'll consider it, though. It's so nice! It'd make some great non-human avatars, I bet.

[BigMcIntoshSL]

18 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

Many creators does not bother with an alpha mask.

Oh yes, I have seen tutorials "how to make your own alpha mask". No way. I would have to log into the test grid for uploads, or pay a texture upload 2-3 times before it is right. Plus all the time spent. I don't want to do that work.

Making alpha masks for multiple clothes... Hard no.

It is many free packs of alpha layers, and they are a p_a_i_n to use. Nothing fits right, unless you have a very big garment and need an alpha for the whole torso, or the whole legs. It takes too much time. I often wear clothes just a few times, if I had just 3-4 outfits, it would be an easy thing to do.

I agree with you on almost every point. Generally speaking, alpha cuts are more accessible to the layperson and easier to adjust on the fly.

But since you mention it, I would love to see more creators include alpha masks for their products. I often have to go back and adjust my alpha cuts after changing outfits due to glitchy auto-hiders. Adding alpha masks to an outfit would eliminate this issue.