As regular readers of Rez will know, I am mostly found wandering the Second Life network as a 'normal' human avatar however I do also have a penchant for different avatar shapes notably Loco Pocos and Tinies. It was with this knowledge that fellow Rez writer Voodoo Buwan approached me with his latest discovery, namely the BUBU.

The brainchild of Logan Skytowner and Edge Axel the BUBU avatar is larger than a standard tiny avatar and generally with less of the 'aww' factor mixed in. These are highly customisable avatars which come complete (for the modest fee of 250$L) with all the templates and textures for creating your own skin as well as the exceptionally effective (and cool) spraycan for changing skins. The skins and accessories on the market are all very reasonably priced and offer avatars a different style of appearance.

Armed with my BUBU avatar I headed in the direction of the newly created main store for BUBU where I caught up with Logan Skytowner and Edge Axel, in possibly the most fun interview I've ever done for Rez Magazine, and asked them about the BUBU including the future and possibilities you could experience with one.

Trinity Dechou: Firstly, please explain what a BUBU is and how it came into creation in SL.
Logan Skytower: Well, the BUBU is an avatar, made specifically to create your own distinct, stylized look. It came into creation because I love all those little Vinyl DYI toys, but couldn't get any good ones around where I live, in real life. So I decided to sculpt my own and that's sorta where Edge came in and told me I should make it an avatar.
Edge Axel: Yeah. I was like "LOGAN, DO IT! DO IT, DO IT!" And he's like "Omg, okay! :D"
Logan Skytower: That's basically what it came down to :)

Trinity Dechou: How long has the BUBU been available to buy in SL?
Edge Axel: Seventy-four years!
Logan Skytower: Hahahaha, nice, Edge, nice. It's been available for round about 7 months now.
Edge Axel: Wow - It's sure felt like seventy-four years..
Logan Skytower: Absolutely. It has made me an old, old man.

Trinity Dechou: Had you had any content creation experience in SL before you started to make these avatars?
Logan Skytower: Yeah, loads, actually. Quite early on in SL I started hanging out with Aemilia Case of Philotic Energy and Fusemelon fame and she got me into learning sculpts and making clothing. For about 8 months I had a little clothing store called Felid Disrupt, which basically taught me how to do textures, sculpts, and all those things and that's sorta how I figured out how to make the BUBU. The only thing totally new to me was animation. And scripting, so for that last part I hired a scripter, who is now my steady scripter and also consistently for hire, Lillium Elcar.
Edge Axel: I help to script when I can. I'm not as great as Lillium, though - she's fantastic!
Logan Skytower: I have Edge for my crazy fun scripting, like jumping cars and whatnot, and Lillium for my serious scripting, like how to make an encrypted channel to send the textures over when the spraycan paints the avatar.

Trinity Dechou: So there are also accessories which go along with the BUBU, can you explain a little about what those are.
Logan Skytower: Most accessories so far have been made by Edge Industries, owned by Edge here, like the rideable animals and the BUBU car. I pretty much had nothing to do with that, except help testing them and watching them be built. My own big accessories are only just starting to come out, like the army set. And essentially, it's attachments to help personalize your BUBU. Or vehicles to share the BUBU fun with your friends.
Edge Axel: Yeah - as Logan said; I've got the two rideable animals, the horse and the turtle - those were just experiments I guess. They weren't built to go on sale, but I guess I changed my mind. Oh! And the car. There'll be more stuff, better stuff - I'm still learning. :D

Trinity Dechou: Yeah sure, it's all a learning curve of new experiences with a new product, have you each learned any new skills because of the BUBU and if so what?
Edge Axel: Oh, definitely - I've picked up some sculpting skills and texturing skills - and with scripting, I guess that's a given since everytime you script you're going to pick up something new - more often than not, anyway.
Logan Skytower: That absolutely goes for me, yeah. My sculpting and texturing has had to improve so much during the whole process, to create the things that I had in my head. For instance, looking at the Tier 1 skins, as I call them, the ones you see in the vendors , are now, in my opinion quite bad, especially compared to my new work. And sculpt wise, I've just learned so much, just learning how to do oblong sculpts, to keep prim count down and keep the BUBU lowlag. And of course, animations, like I said before, were completely new territory.
Edge Axel: Oh! Yeah, I'm learning about animating, too! :D

Trinity Dechou: Yeah, talking of the skins, you actively encourage people to make their own skins for the BUBU, can you explain a little about the process behind making skins and why you encourage people to make their own?
Logan Skytower: Ah, well, that was fairly easy for me. I set out to make a DIY toy, turned it into the avatar and through the whole process I just kept in mind that I wanted to keep the idea of it being a DIY avatar.
Edge Axel: I like the fact that people can take a product and then work to make it their own kind of thing, having them add their own style to it. It's nice. :D
Logan Skytower: So, encouraging people to make their own skins comes first and foremost, more than what I make with the BUBU. Granted, I have the advantage of knowing how their made and as such how to take the customization to it's full advantage so, as such, I've made a video of the process of how I go about making a skin and made that into a giant tutorial, which can be viewed in the store. Still, I've seen some people make amazing skins with the BUBU, or just generally do amazing things, like what Edge is working on for his Halloween BUBU, which is an actual transforming Werewolf.
Edge Axel: I'm pretty proud of the werewolf so far. I learnt a lot scripting the transformation. It's far from done, though. Let's just hope I can get it out at Halloween. Haha.
Logan Skytower: And that, to me, just shows how far you can push the BUBU, ya know? That people can just go absolutely nuts on it, completely change their appearance. I get more of a kick out of seeing others work than making something myself.

Trinity Dechou: So by opening it up and allowing others to do their own things and add their own styles the mixture of BUBUs grows and helps you to develop them further perhaps?
Edge Axel: I like the fact that the Bubu can be used as a learning tool, rather than an avatar - too!
Logan Skytower: Oh, absolutely. See, my imagination only goes so far, but for instance, Helena Stringer, another business associate of mine, has made these super cute Cthulhu BUBU's that are just a complete departure from anything I'd ever do, and to see that, and see what she's done with it, to me, just shows the diversity and the enormously broad appeal it can have.

Trinity Dechou: What sort of feedback have you had for the BUBU?
Logan Skytower: Loads, absolutely loads. From people IMing me asking where I got it because it was so cute, to people telling me two, three times a day that I should make this or that skin. Overall, so far, the reception has been amazing. Just, the people who get one seem to love it, since it's also just... a little crazy. It's a strange, tiny, insane avatar with no real limits besides imagination.

Trinity Dechou: And presumably more and more people want to make their own additions and skins for their newly found avatars, roughly do you know how many others are making products for the Bubu?
Edge Axel: I think just about everyone that's picked up a Bubu has at some point made something for it, or modded an existing object to fit it.
Logan Skytower: I know exactly, at the moment. I'm still keeping track of everyone who makes skins. There is, of course, Edge Industries, who makes rideable creatures and vehicles and who knows what else to come. There's Helena Stringer of the Stringer Mausoleum, who makes insane mythical skins for them. There's Erricson Turbo who makes game related skins for the BUBU, besides his own amazing scifi/anime products, he has a Halo skin in 3 colors and a Resident Evil skin. There's Voodoo Buwan, of VooBu Skins who just opened his own little store, selling BUBU skins based on pop culture figures and that's it, really :) And, like Edge said, everyone who got one has at some point modded the BUBU in some form or way, yeah.

Trinity Dechou: Have you faced any hurdles along the way and if so, what?
Logan Skytower: Well, the biggest hurdles have definitely been the learning curve and the finding a place to sell them. I rarely do things small, so not this time either. So I wanted to open with a big store in a nice, big place. Started at VSN, the Virtual Sports Nexus, and due to problems, namely, that sim was closing down, I had to move and went over to Caisteal, FSG, the Furry Sandbox group, and for both these sims I've had to rebuild my store by the owner to "fit more with the style". At first, you take offense to that... but I understood it. It was still a hurdle though. I eventually left Caisteal because it was being rebuilt and it was quite simply taking too long and I was taking a hit, sales wise. And thus, thanks to the Amnesia club, I ended up here, at Stonehaven.
Edge Axel: Yeah, it's a little bit saddening when you need to change your store to fit the sim it's in, though - completely understandable.
Logan Skytower: Which is, why, at some point, I hope to be able to have a BUBU sim, but at the moment, it's just a dream. But we'll get there, I'm sure.
Edge Axel: We dream a lot - we were talking about having a Bubu themed theme-park in said sim. Haha. That's a long way away, though.
Logan Skytower: A long, long way away, yep. But it'd be good. So very, very good.

Trinity Dechou: Nice, Getting a new avatar and brand out into the public in SL can be quite hard, can you explain the ways you've tried to increase the visibility of BUBU?
Logan Skytower: Oh, absolutely. For that, I have to thank Achariya Maktoum, Helena Stringer, Selos Dae, Aikea Rieko and Terry Toland. Achariya just gave me a gameplan, essentially, which was to gain visibility, tease the public, via IHeartSL.com with teaser images. And to contact some "popular" designers to create Limited Edition launch skins, which turned out to become Helena Stringer of Stringer Mausoleum, Aikea Rieko of Plastik and Selos Dae of TRAP skins. And Terry Toland has been blog covering the BUBU from day one, on her own personal blog. Helena managed to get all her groups to show up on launch day and all of that has just been an amazing experience.
Edge Axel: I ran around and threatened people, telling them if they don't buy Logan's product - I'd come to their house and stab them with a potato! ..I'm kidding :D

Trinity Dechou: Obviously it's been very well received by the community and the other designers what's on the cards for the future of BUBU?
Edge Axel: Rocketships, laser-beams, flying squirrels! Yes. We're going there. :D Well, I might - I don't know about Logan.. Hehe.
Logan Skytower: Oof, that's actually a tough question. I don't have a particular path to take the BUBU. I just sorta... make it up as I go. The army stuff was just an experiment, turned out nicely and I released it. Then there's the LoveSuit series which just came out which was a suggestion by a friend, he told me to make it and... yeah. I just sorta do my own thing and hope that people like it and keep liking it. I know one thing on my gameplan at the moment and that is that there are new Limited Edition skins coming, for Halloween.
Edge Axel: I'm hoping aliens will invade. I haven't had any luck convincing Logan yet, though!
Logan Skytower: I have yet to make a proper alien skin, without looking too much like Greenies.

Trinity Dechou: Well thanks guys for a lovely new avatar with great potential for customisation and a wonderfully fun afternoon and interview
Logan Skytower: You too, absolutely, and thank you for interviewing us!
Edge Axel: Thanks a bunch. It's been fun. :D