I make no bones about my love for TMD- The Mens Dept. It’s entirely possible that I look forward to it more than FAMESHED or even COLLABOR88 ( and that’s saying something!) especially when you consider I’m not a male avatar! But the fact is that each month it sells some bloody glorious stuff, it really does.

I’ll be honest, the fact that it’s expanding in size fills me with both hope and dread; hope because I think this means that male avatars are finally being seen as just as important as female, especially when it comes to fashion, but dread because I’m worried that the standard of the showcase will slip. I’ve got to be honest here and say a couple of the brands included this month were a little bit, hmm how can I put this? ‘Not up to the usual standard’, shall we say, BUT hopefully they’ll use the opportunity of being part of such an auspicious event to improve their products and prove that they’re worthy of inclusion. The one thing you have to say about TMD is each month it’s an absolute roaring success. It’s always jammed to the rafters and filled with some utterly gorgeous avatars too..not that I go looking or anything, ahem! Now that little intro  is out of the way let me tell you about what Jez and I fell in love with when we visited today. A MESH BODY FOR MEN. GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

Now, when you consider we’ve just had the release of the SLink Physique and there’s a number of other female mesh bodies on the market it had to be that the fully-fledged male equivalent was just around the corner, and it seems that it’s been launched at TMD.And you know what? I really, REALLY like him. Take a look. That shot at the top of the page isn’t touched up in any way, shape or form, I’ve merely trimmed the picture for the blog. Is your jaw still on the floor? Are your pants ever-so-slightly damp? I know mine ruddy well are!  LOOK!!

Isn’t he an absolute dish? His name is ‘Anthony’. He’s a SIGNATURE MESH AVATAR creation, and comes complete with body, shape, four skin tones and Alpha Hud.  

The product itself is straightforward to fit- there are alphas for full body and one for the head, meaning you can use your own chops should you want to. However, this will prove tricky due to skin tone matching; there are just four shades to select from and unless you plan on wearing polo necks you’re going to see seams UNTIL we start getting appliers for this product. (Skin creators are going to be an incredibly busy bunch in the next few months aren’t they? APPLIER ALL THE THINGS!!)

Fortunately ‘Anthony’ has a very lovely face. In fact, he is incredibly handsome. There’s something a little, hmm, Nordic or even Baltic about his face, and I’m not complaining about that in any way, shape or form. In profile he is a sensation, with his nommable lips and thick, shapely brows making him an extremely attractive guy. I love his nose. He looks good bald, but he’s a real treat when worn with some rather surprising hair choices; for some reason I decided to try some Dura hair on him, not for a moment thinking it would work…and just LOOK AT HIM! He’s a sensation isn’t he?! OOF!!! The skin tones, whichever one you opt for, are each pretty darn lovely featuring great shading, blemish details and tone. He’s a very realistic guy. I always thought that Jez looked great in his REDGRAVE skin before, but now there’s just no comparison and I don’t think there’s any going back, he looks way too good in this!   Of course, this being a mesh body means he has decent feet and hands. I’ve always held a special loathing for the bog-standard male avatars hands and even though SLink produced some amazing male add-ons Jez ain’t my avatar so I didn’t fork out for them, and subsequently whenever I’ve photographed him I’ve tried to do it in such a way as to hide his shovel-like claws.

For some reason, and I’m sure I’ve not been the only one to notice it, whenever Jez posed his hands would occasionally look really ‘off’. It wasn’t something I ever really noticed replicated by the female avatars, but I often saw it with Jez and ruddy hated it.

I don’t need to worry about it now, because he has nice hands and they work beautifully with the rest of the mesh. In fact, his body is rather ruddy delightful. (I predict this torso will be one of the most photographed in SL over the next few weeks!)

You know, upon reflection It’s just ever so slightly possible that I’m a wee bit more impressed by this than I am the SLink physique  mesh body, even though it’s not something I’ll ever wear, and I’ll tell you why that is. I wasn’t convinced that a male mesh body would be as successful as a female. For some reason my kitty-fried brain just didn’t think it could be achieved; I knew Siddean Munro would nail her mesh body creation, but when it came to the boys I had no expectations really, so it’s great to be so pleasantly surprised. I guess I was a little narrow-minded in my expectations, but I’m so chuffed that they’ve been surpassed!  It’s not perfect though, of course it’s not. There’s room for improvement. I’d like to be able to change my eyes for a start, and I’d also like to see eyelashes. I’d like the ear shape/detail to be slightly improved, picky puss that I am. But these are relatively minor quibbles on my part (and perhaps something I can change anyway, I just don’t know it yet) but as I keep saying to myself, it’s ‘early days’. I mean, look how bad mesh clothes were in the beginning against where we are now. Who’d have thought it eh?

Incidentally Jez is wearing ‘Anthony’ against his usual shape, and that’s something that I really like about this mesh, it fit onto his frame without any alterations needing to be made and looked good from the get go. The HUD is also exceptionally easy to use and works a treat, no problems there at all.  In fact, the only problem that I did encounter with fitting was a serious case of bug-eye, but that was swiftly addressed by using the sliders.

I can’t wait to see how my peers are going to style ‘Anthony’ on their blogs, and I have a really good feeling about him. In fact, this Kitty is about to go and test him out in the bath..you know..for science or something. Oh, and a final point. This mesh avatar is just L$300 at THE MENS DEPT. Which is so cheap as to be scandalous, so what are you waiting for? I’m guessing the price reflects that he is a ‘Lite’ version, whatever that means, but even so it’s an absolute gift at that price. Go and try him out!! (Also check out the SIGNATURE MESH AVATARS Flickr and Facebook pages, where you can leave comments to help with product development, something I always love to see!)

Congratulations to Brox and all the team behind this epic creation, now you must excuse me as I’m being called from the bathroom..apparently the water is warm, the champagne has been poured and I’m being missed….LUCKY KITTY!!

Jez wears: 

• Mesh Avatar ‘Anthony’ from SIGNATURE MESH AVATAR
• Hair by Dura
• Necklace by Mandala