Genus Bento Mesh Head

I have been trying on (and then quickly taking off) every version of the Genus Bento mesh head since it entered beta 6 or so months ago. Not only could I not create a shape that I liked, but I found the early options and animation HUDs to be clunky and less than intuitive. The thing that really turned me off the most though, was the eyes and their weird (for me) movement.

Classic, Baby, Wut?

I see beautiful avatars all over Flickr repping the Genus head – with faces called “classic” and “baby.” I found this confusing at first but it seems like Genus will release “faces” as the differentiating features of the head and the first two are classic and baby. They will be releasing additional faces going forward. You can decode their naming mechanisms for each head/face/version, here.

Let me just say, I admire how Genus looks on others even though I have never liked how it looked on my own avatar. In fact, I had all but given up even trying on skins for it until I saw the newest Bold & Beauty skin, Grace. I failed at creating a shape that looked as nice as the avatar in the ad, but for the purposes of this review, I just kept going.

So as I mentioned, Genus’ rigged eyes move unnaturally in my opinion, and in some instances, they even extend outside my avatar’s eye sockets. I am certain this is because I haven’t created a 100% compatible shape yet, but I will note that I have not had this problem with another head in SL other than Fiore’s Bento head. YMMV!

I will admit I haven’t spent a ton of time playing with all the features on the HUDs, so I still have a very tentative feel for how everything works. That said, there is no other head on the grid that is an elegantly designed as LeLutka’s. And especially as LeLutka recently updated their heads and HUDs. If you consider the price of a Genus Head at $5500L and a LetLutka head, fully loaded with Glam Affair skin and perfectly functioning HUDs for both animations and options, there is just no parity.

The Bottom Line

Genus is a “newer” brand (in name anyway) so it benefits from fresh media (blog) coverage and new applier inventory from every popular creator on the grid. But the truth is, LeLutka is still King – or Queen – for me. And no other head has come close to their slick design, realistic movement and overall packaging for the price. Not a one 🙂

xoxo

ps – I did this review a week ago but I have the new version of WordPress and it’s not behaving for me. It takes me hours – no, days – to write a post now.

---