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This month’s collectible items are the Oculus Mythica and Elemental Wings!
So, it’s the summer season…
As you may or may not know, I cannot devote my entire life to Gaia. In fact, as you may or may not know, I’ve devoted my life’s work to creating art I can be proud of and hopefully hang in a gallery. But, as you may or may not know, I’m also strapped for cash right now and must work at a job that nobody will appreciate until the economy crumbles and they have to fire all but the minimum number of staff members to keep the place up and running. Oh, the stories I could tell you.
As such, it is this very reason why my critiques for the next few months may be a little late.
 Mythica Collectibles?
The admin team is getting desperate. Wings as collectibles? They said they wouldn’t do it, but they half-kept their word like they have in the past. There are no angel or fallen angel wings, but when the cost of running this site reaches epic standards, I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to just bite the bullet and do it. As far as the contacts go? While unexpected, it hopefully won’t kill any future contacts that could be released in stores. Or at least one can hope.
You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!
It’s common knowledge that back wings have been requested for a while. The first and only pair for a long time were the Fairy Wings, but that changed fairly quickly. Since then, wings have become a common feature in both collectibles and recently Evolution Items. More are naturally expected.
The Elemental Wings takes care of six different back wings in one blow. Each pair has the feature to mix and match them with other wings from other sets, as well as symbolic life- and right-side placement for your role-playing character should one be required. As such, I won’t go into those options as heavily as I will the wing design as a pair.
The default option is the Pyro Wings. This pair will not ever replace the wings you get from the Flame Swords. For starters, they don’t look all that great as a representation of fire. While the pallet of colors does read fire, the actual design reads feathers. If you have the Phoenix Circlet in your inventory, you may be able to make this work, but for hardcore pyro-nuts, you are still better off getting a pair of Flame Swords.
The Tsunami Wings do not look like wings at all. If anything, it looks like your avatar is a part of the group of people Moses lead through the parted seas. The so-called wings look even more awkward in their individual left- and right-side options. Design wise, they retain the classical motif of a Japanese woodblock print, but as I said earlier, the height of the waves makes your avatar look like it is walking between parted waters. You are better off using the individual options as an accessory to the water motifs offered in the Western Zodiac and Elemental Hair, as those are designed better. I can see an interesting combination with these wings and the Venus Shell from the Masterpiece, but making it work would be very difficult.
Flora Wing essentially gives you wings made out of giant leaves accented with vines and small spring flowers. It is also probably the better designed wings in the entire set, as it isn’t as big or visually heavy as some of the others. DandiiDooDad Spore owners that actually like the symbiont forms will find these wings very fitting. So will the owners of the Winter Rose who use the Rosy Cap option. However, be careful with things like the girl version of this element in the Elemental Hair or even the Nest of Thorns option in the Winter Rose. Because of the how little visual space the wings take up, they will disappear behind anything that takes up a larger space than they do. That said, you can now flame the boards by cosplaying as the Earth Faerie from Neopets!
The Zephyr Wings gives you clouds of airs as wings in a very elegant but asymmetrical design. The unusual thing is that as a pair, the left wing falls behind your avatar, but individually it appears in front of your avatar like a cloud that wrapping around your side. With an abundance of cloud items available, it won’t be difficult to come up with something that can match the line flow this option has. With the Cloud collectible, these wings work well in looking like mock Angelic wings, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a decent Heaven outfit to go with it and your Halo of color.
I won’t lie. The Shade Wings looks like the Metalocolpse logo. In some way, I was kind of seeing this as an option for last month’s Rock Hard instead of those strange Skull Wings. In another respect, they work better than the wings you get from having two Dark Halos. But even now, as late as this critique is, I haven’t seen anyone that is a fan of the darker items we have actually use these wings in a way that both lends itself to the design and accents what items we have. You would think that all the G-LOL fans would flock to this option, as the design just accents those items very well. Same goes for fans of the Gothic Veil and its corset option. But, no, I haven’t seen anyone do that as of this typing.
The Blessed Wings borrows from the Illuminated Manuscripts of old by giving us a very decorative pair of wings designed to be the light counterpart to the dark Shade Wings. On the forums, the gold and yellow shine will just be lost with the white background. You would think things like the Art Nuevo circle from Masterpiece would fix this problem, but the wings are layered behind those items. In towns or any place that doesn’t have a white background, the wings show up just fine.
As of this typing, both the Shade and Blessed Wings are suffering from visual imbalance. The simple fix would be to flip these pair on their vertical axis, as the wing on the right side of the avatar is larger than the one on the left. This is a perspective goof, as the other options clearly show that the left wing is suppose to be the larger of the two.
Overall, these wings have their good and bad points in design and flexibility. But they are wings, and those have been in demand since I was a member, if not longer. They will sell well no matter what I say, and there will always be a pool of people who are obsessively fanatical about them no matter how bad some of the designs are.
The iEye
The Magic Eye we got before now has a version 2.0 in the Mythic Eye, as both are respectively known by translation. The Oculus Mythica has more options than the Oculus Magica, so let’s just jump right into it.
I honestly do not know what to make of the default option for this item. The eyese are orange with the rest of eyeball a kind of blue-purple. They are slanted and extremely oval shaped. They are also clearly feminine in design, as there are long eyelashes and purple eye shadow. The best use for these contact lenses? Demonic God.
Serpent Eyes gives you a pair of yellow/gold eyes with a small slit for a pupil. Owners of the Green Corallus will no doubt love this option, as it matches the items final form in all respects. Non-snake lovers can use these as cat eyes, which would help eliminate the want for the Cat Eye Contact Lens that was found when the profile wishlist system was first introduced, as well as a few others as I’ll point them out. Definitely one of the most flexible options in this set.
Old-Fashioned Eyes turns your avatar into an anime character from the 1940s and 50s. Your eyes are no longer the detailed versions we know and love, but black Pac-Man shapes. It’s a shame that, much like with the Oculus Magica, they end up de-equipping when you try to put on the David skin base from Masterpiece. It’s worse if you have the vampire base, because you can’t press your luck and hope the eyes glitch and layer on top. Your best bet if you want to look like a real old fashion cartoon character is to invest in the white face make-up offered by Natasha and Devon over at Skin Tyte. And while you’re there, you might as well pick up one of those clown cheek circles to give your character that extra blush if you want some color in your old-fashion design a la Animaniacs.
Flutter Eyes gives your avatar Zurg eyes with some rather long eyelashes. Frankly, I don’t know what you would want to use this option for. If you have the Butterfly Mantilla, then maybe you could get some use out of it, but for everyone else, the best you can use it for is to create the Zurg-Human hybrid look. That is if you can hide those long eyelashes with a wig or a hair style that has bangs that can layer over them.
Cyclopes Eye gives your face one giant eye. Lela cosplayers rejoice! Keep in mind that because of the scale of the eye, you won’t be able to use some mouth items that include the nose like the Rebellion Face Mask or Gas Mask without some really horrible layering problems. The most common one is having the part that is suppose to cover the nose look like it is poking your eye.
Phoenix Eyes freak me out more than the default option. Now, granted that I’ve never seen what a phoenix eye looks like, but given the thick black outline, I can only assume that this will be used as a kind of demonic set of eyes. You could use these with the Superior Form’s fire base for an interesting look, but again, it won’t be so much a phoenix eye as it is a fire demon’s eyes.
Baggy Eyes makes your avatar look like it needs sleep badly. You know what that means, right? Lots of Death Note cosplayers running around like they’re what’s-his-name in the white shirt and blue jeans! It’s a pity we cannot hold the energy drink cans, because then we could make our avatars look like we were up all night binge drinking on Red Bino while playing a game on the Laptop. But, I guess the Laptop by itself will just have to do. Or you could have the classic I-could-not-stop-reading-this-book kind of scenario with these eyes.
Empty Eyes gives you that glazed over look Claire would get in Heroes every time something got stuck in her brain which prevented her from healing herself. It’s also the stereotypical possessed indicator in most animes. Designed to eliminate the Blank Eyes Contacts that leaked with the wishlist program, these eyes are very flexible both in use and representation. Throw on one of the religious items, and you can call yourself a prophet. Throw some more fantasy themed items, and you can pronounce yourself a demonic entity. Or you could just wear your normal clothes and call yourself blind.
Busted Eyes gives your avatar the look of Rocky after having his a** handed to him, complete with one eye just barely open. Combine this with one or all of the various scar wounds you can buy for a really beat up looking avatar. Hell, you could even put as many of the bandaged items as you want, both bloody and clean, to look even more beat up! It’s really only good for one kind of look, which, much to my discomfort, is often seen on girl avatars as of this typing. Just a little PSA: hitting your girlfriend doesn’t mean you love her.
Insect Eyes should really be called Fly Eyes, since that’s what you get. The thing is, there is a very steep shortage of bug items that could match this. As a result, you’ll be using this mode as a reference to the sci-fi cult film The Fly (the one starring Jeff Goldblum). You could try to make it look well with the Bee Movie sponsor item, but that’s a look that won’t win you any votes in the Avatar Arena despite being a cheap item.
Inverse Eyes technically turns the coloring of your eyes into the negative version of what they would be normally. What is black is now white and what would be colored is white. The reason behind having white irises is because the artists would have to draw in every color opposite of the eye colors that are offered when you create your avatar. It’s also the reason why the shape of the eyes will not ever match the shape of the eyes you pick for your avatar. This pretty much puts the option in the familiar category of demonic eyes. Thankfully, you can pick an expression that will turn these eyes into looking like a pair from a psychotic. I’ll let you discover which expression I’m talking about.
Soulless Cat Eyes is a black version of Empty Eyes only more almond shaped. The almond shape does read cat, but the black eyes don’t really read soulless. As far as uses go, if you have the Superior Form, this option is excellent for creating that creepy doll look that has been missing for a while. Also, with the horror movie The Strangers coming out soon, these eyes would be a nice addition to those mock porcelain masks you can make by combining it with the white face paint make-ups. Just make sure you turn off the mouth option to add an even creepier look to them.
Devilish Eyes… sucks. The eyes you get from the White Drome are better than these. If anything, these eyes make you look more impish than they do devilish.
Finally, we have No Eyes. This is, without a doubt, the most violent and goriest item I’ve ever seen. Here, your eye sockets are shown as empty voids with blood pouring out them. They line up rather nicely with the Skeleton skin base, even if the black of the eye sockets don’t match as well as they could. But if you have any other skin base on with these eyes (those that work, that is), you will no doubt have one really nasty looking face.
Overall, the collection of contacts is hit and miss. It’s pretty much a guarantee that the more cliché the contacts are, the more likely they will be used. Flexibility is limited only by what does and doesn’t work with the cliché with very few breaking out of the mould. If there is one set of eyes that you fancy out the set, it is still worth investing in. But make sure you understand you’ll be using that one or two you fancy and none of the rest.
Visions of Flight
This month’s items are clearly a desperation move by the administration team. With the US economy sucking balls like a back-ally whore, these items were clearly made to get as many people to donate as possible without forcing another multi-quip on the users. It’s a balance between getting what you need and not making other people break their bank for what they want from you that we will be seeing a lot of in the months ahead. Not just in Gaia, but in other areas as well.
That said, aesthetically and objectively, these items are worth investing in no matter what you end up paying for them at this point.
 Zeek Slider · Sun May 18, 2008 @ 02:41am · 1 Comments |
