Unpacking from the Hunt: the penultimate (?) installment

I might get it finished with the next batch.  Or not.  We shall see.

Anyway, here we go.

Stop 81, Hudson's Clothing Co., gives us this "Together Forever" jewelry set - ladies' necklace and earrings pictured (OK, one earring, with that hair, but that's enough for me), also an alternative gents' necklace.  Looks good to me.  "Together Forever" might be a bit optimistic for those little padlock things, given that I can open a padlock in about a minute and a half using nothing more than a penknife.  But the thought is sound.

 

Stop 82, Destiny's Designs, "Steampunk Traveller" outfit.  Ladies' version pictured here, the gents' one is quite different, fortunately.  Looks like the jacket top is based on the same template as the one from AdelleArts, much earlier in the list.  This is fine by me, at least it's mesh I can wear, and the texture work is good.

 

Also in that shot, Steaming Love Birds from number 83, ~XM~ Designs.  Sculpted decorative piece, with turning cogs at the bottom of the cage, so we know that either this is Steampunk, or those lovebirds have been on a seriously weird diet.

 

Stop 84, Miss Darcy, and a Caged Heart.  Doing well for cogs and winged things in cages so far today, aren't we?  This cogged-up heart can be set to sparkle for one special person alone.  That's kind of cute.

Stop 85, Timeless Timepieces, and a Simple Hourglass.  Here, I must confess that my hunting skills failed me, as I found on opening the prize that there is another, presumably More Complex, prize hidden nearby on the sim.  I should probably go and find that, morbid completist that I am.

 

Stop 86, Rag Dollz, and hats! hats! hats!  A total of ten hats, five brown and five black, each with a different tartan on the band.  This definitely returns to the "hatty" theme I mentioned in an earlier post.  They're good hats, mind.  Wouldn't expect anything else from Rag Dollz.

 

Stop 87, Rainy Fey Creations, obligatory disclaimer about the proprietor being a personal friend... her Gear-it-Up boots are nice, though.  They use quality components, including a resizer script by one T. Rosca, who was standing right next to me when I opened the box, and was chuffed.

 

 Stop 88, Classic Steam Accessories, and a choice of hats, the ladies' version shown here, the more macho one with brazen portholes instead of Van Gogh prints being intended, presumably, for the gentlemen.  Yes, the teapot is entirely functional and dispenses a cup of tea.  Which is all you could ask of a teapot and more than you'd expect of a hat.

Stop 89, Chimeric Arts & Fashions, gives us Stiched (sic) Skull Masks in black (pictured) and brown.  The spelling may be iffy, but the masks are splendidly sinister.  If I ever rob a bank, I know what to wear for the job.

 

Stop 90, Holly's Fashions, and the "Romancing the Dream" outfits for men (on the box, natch) and women (worn).  Um.  It looks good in this shot... it would look good in any static pose... but it kind of illustrates a deficiency of pure mesh design, in that those soft feminine flowing ruffled sleeves are completely rigid.   I tried to convince Tali that they'd just put too much starch in the laundry, but I don't think she bought it.  Oh, well.  As I say, it'd look good in a static pose.

 

Stop 91, Art Unbound, and a texture pack featuring Victorian era chemists' labels.  I have got to find an excuse to use that "Spirit of Vitriol" one.  Absolutely got to.

 

Stop 92, SRL Leatherwerx, and two of their sculpted furniture items, an Octagonal Pie Crust Table and a Ewer and Basin.  Good sound decorative sculpts, as we would expect from this long-standing SL supplier of same.

 

Stop 93, Cog & Grog, and another Arcadia Asylum offering, Professor Mittens, the steampunk exploring cat!  He doesn't actually do much besides sit there and look cute... but, come on, he's a cat, sitting there and looking cute is pretty much his job description.

Stop  94, Luminous Designs.  I can't comment on the gentlemen's outfit here, as there wasn't a picture on the box and I didn't unpack it, but this is the Steampunk Lolita dress for the ladies.  The mesh pretty much works on me, and the detailing is nice.  Bit more modest than one might have expected, given the name, but who's complaining?

Stop 95, Panda Panda, and a folding screen with a Steampunk-y scene on it.  It folds and unfolds on touch - shown here unfolded, so you can get something like a proper look at it.

 

Once more, it's just a texture pack, and looks like nothing much until you use the textures.  This one's from number 96, the SOMA School of Design.

 

Stop 97, L+N Signature Designs, and - as is their Signature - it is designed with lots of swoopy Art  Nouveau curves and much shininess.  It plays a tune and the sculpted ballerinas dance.  Once again, we wouldn't expect anything other than quality from this shop.

 

Stop 98, COOGER & DARK'S WAX MUSEUM, and a figurine of Vlad Drakulya, textured and normal-mapped to within an inch of my graphics card's life.  Incredibly detailed figurines seem to be their thing, and they do it well.  The Wax Museum itself is well worth a visit, by the way.  Be prepared for things to take a while to load, mind.  But it's worth the wait.

Stop 99, Pierre Ceriano - who is listed on this blog's short roll of followers, hello there! - and who has supplied some jolly nice creative stuff in previous Hunts.  This time, we get a "Steam Hunt Gift" which is this sort of gazebo affair, complete with a bed based on a tin of sardines, and a complimentary bottle of champagne.  Which I think constitutes doing things in style.  I approve.

 

Stop 100, Drow Science, gives us this Steampunk Airship Daedalus Mini - actually, several variants of the same model airship, which go round and round in different radius circles.  Good detailed little model, would suit a Steampunk aeronautical laboratory or something, purely as a decorative piece.  Look at Professor Mittens, there, you can see he's impressed.

 

And that's all for now.  I hope, in my next, to reach stop 126 and the end of the Hunt, thus enabling the readership-at-very-small to take a look at all the items and cherry-pick whichever ones they want.  I'm here to provide a service, you know.  Or to rabbit on about stuff pointlessly.  One of the two.

And again...

Must pick my feet up a bit if I'm to get all of these done with time to spare before the end of the Hunt!

Anyway.  Here we go again with the next short batch.

Stop 71, !Elemental, and this Gold and Amber ring (with a somewhat larger one available for gentlemen).  It's neat, and includes a control script for fiddling with things like shine and glow and full bright.

 

Something rather larger from stop 72, Potpourri Garden Designs - this Victorian Garden Patio.  There's a fountain inside that building part.  Inside that particular building, too, is a slightly startled Tali.  I say slightly startled, because being suddenly hit over the head with a building is too common an SL accident to get very worked up over.

 

"Hiyo, Silver, away!" I cried.  This is a Steampunk Unicorn from number 73, Julia Collection.  It's an attachment, you can ride around on it.  Kind of cute.

 

Stop 74, Les Sucreries de Fairy, gives us this mesh... thing.  It floats over your shoulder.  The descriptions are kind of lacking.  Tali reckons it's based on a drone from one of the Fallout games, but I only ever played the first one, so I don't really know.  In the absence of any other information, I'm going with... thing.  Again.

 

Once again, Tali volunteers to test the couples animations with me, this time for the Victorian Bench with Gears from number 75, Park Place Home Décor.  It's a nice thing.  The rug underneath it is separate.  We know I approve of rugs, right?  For that matter, I approve of this bench, too, it looks classy.

 

Stained Glass Floor Lamp from stop 76, Griss' General Store.  Typical of Griss and its well-made bits and bobs.  Rather more decorative, in fact, than their usual runs of homey folksy pioneer-y stuff, suitable for any little houses you might care to build on any passing prairie.  I'm rambling.  Anyhow.  Lamp.  Looks good, sheds light, who could ask for anything more?

 

Stop 77... Arcadia Asylum Living Library.  Arcadia Asylum is very nearly an SL institution by now, and deservedly so.  The main prize here, the box for which is lurking behind the clockwork AleyBot... is a complete set of carnival attractions.  Booths, rides, gimmicks, whatnot, everything you need to build your own SL Golden Mile or something.  It's impressive, both for the sheer number of the items, and for the quality of the sculpt and texture work.  I've rezzed just a few of them in the second snapshot, because I just wouldn't have room on that little island for everything.  (I'd probably have enough LI spare in Burroughs, mind, as those sculpts are pretty darn efficient.)  This is another "go to that hunt stop and get that prize right now" sort of thing.

 

After all that, the boxed texture pack from stop 78, USC Texture Tomb, looks sadly anticlimactic, doesn't it?  But I have found uses for many, many, many USC texture packs in the past, and I will undoubtedly use the Clock Faces contained herein.  It might not look much in this snapshot, but it's still a quality gift.

 

Stop 79,  Pirate Queen Designs, gives us this Steam Space Pirate outfit (pretty much unisex, though there's an alternative prim coat-tails attachment for the gents).  Very old-school SL, this.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Have I ranted about mesh and standard sizing and why it never fits this week?  No?  I'll get round to it... anyway, it's a problem you don't have with system layers, isn't it?  Am I still in these brackets?)

 

Stop 80 is... not ready yet.  One of only two that are Not Ready Yet.  Speaks well for the Hunt's organization and the enthusiasm of the merchants, that does.  RL's only managed to scupper two of them.  Anyway.  That's yer lot for the moment, then.

Unpacking from the Hunt, the next installment!

Here we go again!

 

Starting at number 51, Top Katz, and a Gold Pocket Watch.  Actually, two pocket watches, one you can put in your pocket, and one you can hold in your left hand (you can just see it there) and consult.  Both of them tell you the time, and have an optional hover text to help you with that.



 

 

 

Stop 52, Chaos, Panic & Disorder, provide ladies' and gents' versions of this Explorer's Pendant, with a compass in it.  Ladies' version seen here, for obvious reasons.

 

The gift from number 53, House of Byzantine, rather defeated my efforts to photograph it.  You'll just have to take my word for it that the box, there, is playing a Steam Balloon Ambient Travel Song.  An appropriately atmospheric piece of music, to be sure.

 

This "Steampunk Art School" texture pack from stop 54, Texture Junction, suffers much the same problem.  All I can do is take a picture of the box.  Doesn't do it justice, really.

 

Nor does this, which is the interior of just one room of the Victorian Skybox from number 55, Domicile.  As is often the case with skyboxes, it's just a large uninteresting box from outside.  Those Victorian interiors, though, are anything but uninteresting.

Stop 56, Rozamyndi's, gives us this cute burlesque outfit for the ladies, and a version of the hat, and that plaque thing with cogs (a "Steampunk machine") for the gents.  I think the ladies rather get the better of the deal there.

 

Weka Steam at 57 gives us this really nifty Air Ferry airship.  I've always liked Captain Weka's designs, and this one certainly does not disappoint.  Most definitely not.

 

Err... you know how I said, a couple of posts back, how top hats and brains in jars were Steam Hunt staples, but you didn't often see them combined?  The Thinking Hat from 58, SparkWorks... rather proves me wrong about that.  You seem to get more of the brain stem included in this hat than you did with the other one.  That's a bonus.  I think.

 

Number 59, sadly, isn't ready at the time of writing.  I may have to do a special supplementary issue for that one.  So we move on to number 60, VM Detail & Design, and this Drop Leaf Tea Table set.  Coalesced object, comprising table, rug, and four chairs, all with immensely detailed and lovely textures.  Nice.

Stop 61, An Lema, gives us this part-mesh writing desk with assorted knick-knacks on it, and a folding screen (which actually does fold or unfold on command).  Fun things, nicely made.  It's not really as low down as it looks here, I just rezzed the desk too low, and also I am standing on a hillock.

Stop 62, Kabuki Creations, gives us this Sweet Cuddle pose.  I rezzed the pose balls, decided there was something essential missing, and called for help.  Tali nobly stepped up as per usual.  The pose probably works better, actually, with a male avi in my place, as in the picture.  Though you could no doubt juggle the balls around a bit to suit any taste.

 

A neat decorative thing, this Victorian Book Trunk from stop 63, EBDesign.  Very fun for a long-standing bookworm like me.

 

Steampunk Spectacles from number 64, the Ditko University for Builders.  My mother always said that all that reading would be bad for my eyes.

 

Stop 65, Pestique Furniture, and this Rolltop Desk, with candles and a cute (and definitely Steampunk) chair.  Well-made, looks good, what more can I say?

 

 

 Stop 66, Timeless Textures, and the "Romancing the Steam" texture pack.  We know, by now, that pictures of boxes are never going to do these things justice.  Let's just concede that and move on.

 

Yes, that is me and Tali again.  Yes, we are on a flying bathtub, and yes, we are having fun.  This thing is the Cedar Bay TravelTub, it comes from stop 67, Cedar Bay Furnishings, it is fully functional both as a bathtub and a mode of transport, it is free as a Hunt gift till the end of March, and you know you want one, gentle reader, so go and get one right now.  I'll wait.

 

Stop 68, Bibliotheque de Coeur, gives us this "Poe Recites".  That is Edgar Allen Poe on the cover of a little prim book, and if you touch it, it does indeed recite Poe's poem "El Dorado".  Which is nice.  (Lines of text in chat, I should point out.  Not sound clips or anything.  But still nice.)

 

Stop 69, ***bacidalucia***, gives us a corset for the ladies and a waistcoat for the gentlemen.  I'm actually wearing the corset in this shot, as this corset doesn't show my boobs.  It's system layer stuff, but it's good system layer stuff.

 

 

Stop 70, The Vintage Touch, gives us two garden benches, suitable for sitting upon, one (shown here) with a solo sitter, the other with a couples sitter.  You can have three guesses who I got to try it out with me, and the first two don't count.

 

 

And that's it for this installment!  With 126 stops in total along the Hunt, we are now past the half way mark... and plenty of time, dear reader, for you to grab anything that takes your fancy or piques your interest, before the month ends.

Moonlighting?

Are times hard in Caledon?  Are they really so hard that the Guvnah has to get a part-time job in a Buckinghamshire pharmacy, just to make ends meet?