Choosing a mesh body in Second Life isn’t just a matter of taste. It can affect what’s available to you in the way of clothing and skins. Just as with your choice of mesh head, your choice of mesh body will determine how easy it is to customise it and make it your own. While you can use a more obscure mesh body that fits your personal taste (and there are far more of those than I’ll be covering in this post) if you want a decent level of customisability then there are just a handful of male bodies to choose from.
Before we get started I’m going to mention a couple of very important things to bear in mind.
1) Demo everything
This is the most important thing to remember. Mesh bodies can be expensive purchases, often running to up to L$5,000. You might be lucky and catch a half-price sale or an introductory offer after an existing body has released a major update, but in the main you want to be picking up the free demos of mesh bodies while you’re still at the point of decision-making. Please don’t be one of the many impatient and frustrated guys I’ve helped get set up over the years who have wasted tens of thousands of L$ on full-priced mesh heads and bodies without trying out the free demos to see which ones they prefer.
2) Be wary of ‘full mesh avatar’ offers on the SL Marketplace
You might actually get a full mesh avatar from these, but it won’t have any clothing available for it other than the limited items sold by that one store, and that’s if you’re lucky. Or you might just receive a system avatar (shape and skin) – which, yes, technically and pedantically, is made of mesh but not the kind of mesh we’re referring to here – and you will be very disappointed. These types of avatar are usually fairly cheap (around a couple of hundred L$) but will occasionally run to around L$1,500, and they will be completely useless unless you plan on spending all your time on nude beaches or AFK sex regions. Which, y’know, I ain’t gonna judge, but if you’re here for advice on setting up your male avatar I’m assuming that you want some clothing and suchlike for it so that you can socialise with more than just your dick.
The ‘Big Four’ male mesh bodies
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the major contenders. I’m going to include pricing and body skin availability from the most well-known skin stores, but please note that these are at the time of writing this post (October 2026). I’ll try to remember to come back and update this post if a major body skin release comes out, but I’m not going to update it every time a particular body goes on sale for a while. I’ll also mention any special items included, most notably whether there’s a starter outfit that you can wear while you go shopping for more clothing.
In addition, where brands have more than one line of body skins I’ll note down which is the newest line and which are the older ones. I’ll be making another post later in this series about choosing skins, at which point I’ll go into more detail about head and body skin matching, because oh boy that can get a bit convoluted between older and newer ranges for both bodies and heads. (I won’t lie, I’m rather dreading writing that one, but it’s probably going to be one of the most useful posts I’ll ever make, once I figure out how to convey the information as simply and intuitively as possible.)
A quick note regarding ‘matching head tones’
Where I mention that a store’s body skins match a specific store’s head tones (usually their own), this is just a general reference guide. With BoM neck blend layers it’s possible to get a seamless transition between completely unrelated head and body skin tones. The more head and body skins that you demo the more you’ll come to recognise which stores tend toward warmer-toned skins, and which tend toward cooler-toned skins. Matching warm-toned with cool-toned, even with a good neck blend layer, won’t look great. But matching like with like is something that you will be able to get away with. I’ll go into more detail on this when we get to the next post in this series.
Meshbody – Legacy
Legacy is undeniably the top dog when it comes to popularity. No matter whether you’re looking for clothes, accessories, skins, tattoos, or any other customisation items, you will always find Legacy as an option. In fact, some creators will rig their clothing only for Legacy. So, if you want your shopping trip(s) to be as pain-free as possible, Legacy is probably the body for you. (Jake would be the close second option. More on that one in a bit.)
At the time of writing this post (October 2026) there are three male Legacy bodies:
- Legacy Special Edition – this is the flagship body, and will suit just about everyone. This is the version that I wear pretty much all the time.
- Legacy Athletic Edition – the flagship body, but a little more buff. (It should be noted that this is buffness built into the mesh itself. The Legacy Special Edition also contains several starter shapes that include varying levels of buffness.)
- Legacy Basic – a BoM-only ‘lite’ version of the body with no HUD. We all have this tucked away in the depths of our inventory’s default library folders. A great starter, but it has some caveats, which I’m going to cover in a separate post in this series.
There also used to be Legacy Classic, a free reworking of the old TMP male body. This appears to no longer be available (unsurprisingly, as the Legacy Basic version now exists). If you happened to pick this up when it was available, you’re honestly better off ditching it for the free Legacy Basic if you don’t want to shell out for the full body. Stay tuned for a later post in this series, where I’ll go in-depth on using the Basic version of the body.
Cost:
Both the Special Edition and the Athletic Edition are L$5,000 each, but occasionally (once or twice a year) Legacy may run a half-price offer. Basic is, obviously, free, but has fewer features.
Available body skins at October 2026:
- Velour: Picasso Homme – Fit, Soft, Twink, Chubby, Mature (newest)
- Velour: Eros V2 (human, Halloween, and Demon tones – older)
- Not Found: Zeus Body Line – Fit, Muscular, Normal (human and fantasy tones – newest)
- Not Found: Zeus Lithe – Fit, Soft (human and fantasy tones – newest)
- Not Found: Body Skins BoM 2.0 (older)
- Not Found & Avi-Glam: Collab Body Skins (matches Not Found head tones – older)
- Brabos: Atlas – Fit, Classic, Daddy (matches Brabos head tones)
- Vendetta: Ares (matches Vendetta head tones)
Special features:
Both the Special Edition and Athletic Edition bodies include additional (and optional) feet add-ons for use with heeled footwear, and the Special Edition also comes with a set of deformers that may allow you to wear some other clothing rigged for other bodies. (Of note: clothing rigged for Belleza’s Jake body will frequently fit quite well on Legacy Special Edition, and vice-versa, but not always. It’s just a handy thing to remember when it comes to demoing clothing.)
While both bodies make use of a HUD, they also have chat commands for the most common things you may need, such as enabling BoM (Bakes on Mesh) and enabling or disabling fingernails and toenails (the former if you want to wear third party fingernails, and the latter if you find your toenails are floating above your footwear when you have your feet hidden). The list of chat commands is included in a notecard in the body’s inventory folder.
Starter items included:
- Outfit (chinos in five colours, plus underwear, sweater [in both fit and loose options] and shoes in four colours)
- Deformers (Special Edition only)
An important note about clothing marked as ‘Legacy/Athletic’
You may find that a number of clothing creators will rig their items for ‘Legacy/Athletic’ with the intent that they will work on either the Special Edition or the Athletic Edition bodies.
I will always recommend trying demos of everything anyway, but with items marked like this you really want to ensure that you demo, especially if you’re wearing the Special Edition body. Legacy Athletic Edition is more buff, and if you’re wearing Legacy Special Edition you may find that things like necklines and sleeves will ‘hover’ away from your body and not be a perfect fit. I’ve had to ditch a lot of demos for this reason, as that ‘Legacy/Athletic’ rigging is almost always going to account for the more muscular Athletic body.
Store location:
Belleza – Jake
Jake, by Belleza, is the second main contender. It doesn’t have quite the same huge level of support as Legacy, but it’s still right up there. You won’t have any difficulty in finding clothing, footwear, and accessories rigged for Jake. However, there’s a little bit less choice (currently) when it comes to modern body skins. But the great thing is that after its recent 4.0 free update, all existing skins and clothing items continue to work perfectly on the updated body. So, if you prefer an older body skin from the list I’ll give in this section, it’ll work just fine.
If you regularly visit the monthly menswear events such as TMD, Man Cave, Alpha, Manhood, etc., you’ll probably have noticed that the majority of clothing, footwear, and accessories available there tend to be rigged for both Legacy and Jake.
Cost:
L$2,999 at full price, but for a while after its most recent major update it was only L$1,500. It’s still the cheapest of the major bodies, even at full price.
Available body skins at October 2026:
- Velour: Picasso Homme – Fit, Chubby (newest)
- Not Found: Body Skins BoM 2.0 (older)
- Stray Dog: Body skins (matches Stray Dog head tones)
- Vendetta: Ares (matches Vendetta head tones)
Special features:
With the 4.0 update, Jake introduced a lot of new features, all of which I covered in my recent Jake 4.0 update review post. But, to summarise: this body supports both male and female neck fits (allowing you to wear a male, female, or unisex head with a seamless fit to the body), it contains five different heeled feet as part of the body itself (optional) and add-on GenX heeled feet (GenX is the female line of bodies).
Starter items included:
- Full set of body skins, as well as neck blenders that will allow you to match to other head skin tones
- Outfit (tank top, jeans, boots – one colour each)
Store location:
Signature – Gianni X
Signature’s Gianni was another body that had a recent update, becoming Gianni X. I have a review of it here, but note that there have been a couple of updates to the body since I wrote that post.
Gianni X actually contains two bodies in one pack: the latest Gianni X body, and the older Gianni Classic body, the latter of which received a bunch of updates as well. Using the updated Gianni Classic body, you can wear any clothing and skins marked as ‘Gianni’, but using the Gianni X body you must look for clothing marked as ‘Gianni X’, as the rigging for that body is different.
Existing Gianni skins, too, will not fit perfectly on Gianni X. They’ll be close, but if you choose to wear Gianni X look for skins created specifically for Gianni X.
There is a ton of existing clothing for the Gianni Classic body, but hardly anything new being made for it, as those clothing creators who were rigging for Gianni have now moved to rigging for Gianni X. There are fewer creators releasing clothing and skins for Gianni X than there are for Legacy or Jake, but you should still be able to find enough to put together a decent wardrobe for the body. Gianni X is probably the third most created-for male mesh body at the moment.
Cost:
L$4,900 at full price.
Available body skins at October 2026 – Gianni X:
- Velour: Picasso Homme – Fit, with Chubby/’Dad Bod’ coming soon (newest)
- Brabos: Atlas – Fit, Classic, Daddy (matches Brabos head tones)
Available body skins at October 2026 – Gianni Classic:
- Velour: Eros V.1 (older)
- Not Found: Body Skins BoM 2.0 (older)
- Stray Dog: Body skins (matches Stray Dog head tones)
- Vendetta: Ares (matches Vendetta head tones)
Special features:
Gianni X contains both toned and chubby (‘dad bod’) options in the same body, selectable from the HUD. Right now – until Velour releases the planned skins for it – you’ll either need to use the skins included with the body for that chubby version or take a look at the Brabos ‘Daddy’ skin options.
Gianni X also includes the option of HUD-based shaping, in addition to being able to change the underlying system shape the way every other body does. This enables some finer tweaking of the body’s physical features.
Starter items included:
- Full set of body skins in Signature’s own skin tones, for both the Toned and Chubby body options
- Underwear (briefs in black or grey)
Store location:
Inithium – Kario
Inithium’s Kario body is the most muscular option that I’m covering today. There are three body types to choose from, plus a fatpack containing all three if you can’t choose. From left to right on the left side of the above image:
- Kario Flat
- Kario Fit
- Kario Flex
An important note regarding versions:
The individual versions only contain alpha cut options. As well as using alpha clothing layers, they can also use the alpha cuts in the body’s HUD to hide sections of the body when needed. They are BoM-enabled, but they’re not BoM-only. The BoM-only version of the body (you’ll use alpha clothing layers to hide sections of the body when necessary) is only in the fatpack.
The fatpack contains four bodies and two huds (confusing, I know!) You will get:
• One each of the Flat, Fit, and Flex bodies (each labelled as ‘Alpha Cut’), plus a single HUD for them (which is labelled as ‘HUD Kario’ and contains an alpha cuts tab).
• A single body that contains all three types (labelled as ‘Kario BoM version’), plus a single HUD for that (which is labelled as ‘HUD Kario for BoM version’) which contains no alpha cuts tab, but does contain a tab that lets you switch between the three body types.
While Kario is a popular muscular body, a lot of guys use Legacy Athletic for a more built look and more clothing and skin availability, and I tend to see far fewer clothing items for Kario at menswear events. New clothing is out there and comes out fairly regularly, and if you use the body you’ll probably end up with a mental list of specific stores who release clothing for it.
Kario is the gym body, and you can go from toned (Kario Flat) to absolutely ripped (Kario Flex) with Kario Fit being the ‘in between’ option. However, before demoing it I suggest that you tour the large menswear events (TMD, Man Cave, Alpha, Manhood) and take a look at how many stores in those events are rigging for the body, as well as what style of clothing they’re creating. If you’re happy with both the general availability and styles of clothing, then go ahead and pick up some demos.
Cost:
Each individual body option (Flat, Fit, or Flex) costs L$3,000. If you can’t decide, or you want the BoM-only option, then the fatpack containing all of them is L$3,999.
Available body skins at October 2026:
- Not Found: Kario skins
- Velour: Eros V.1 (older)
- Inithium: Skinfarm ‘Nassor’ & ‘Cassius’ body skins
- Velour: not yet available, but is on their to-do list, according to a recent post by the creator in their official Discord server
Special features:
The fatpack of Kario contains a BoM-only version, which doesn’t include the multitude of individual little segments that an alpha-cut body requires. The trade-off for this is that you have all three body options in that single BoM-only body, so you’re effectively wearing three (admittedly very well optimised) bodies in one. However, this only really matters when it comes to triangles, as the VRAM and complexity of the BoM-only body are still lower than each of the segmented alpha-cut bodies. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t likely to be a concern to most people, but for those who do care about these things it’s worth a mention.
Starter items included:
- 7 skins each for the Fit and Flex bodies, with both SLUV and EvoX neck options
- 1 skin each for the Fit and Flex bodies that is white and intended to be used as a base for coloured (fantasy) skins
- 6 skins by Not Found (matches Not Found head tones) for the Flat body – EvoX neck options
- Starter pack of items from multiple creators. Includes body hair, piercings, tattoos, footwear, nails, rings, swimwear, pants, tank top, as well as 6 face skins by Not Found for EvoX heads.
Inithium store location:
And that’s it for this post. Yes, there are a lot more male bodies out there. I own several of them… aaaaaand I can hardly ever find any clothing or skins for them. This is why I’ve only covered the four main male mesh bodies currently available. This post series is intended to guide you through the minefield of male avatar customisation in Second Life, which can be difficult enough without adding obscure bodies into the mix!
Coming next in this series: Choosing & Using a Skin – Layering, tone matching, UV maps, neck blends, add-on details… Let’s simplify all this!
The above will be a link once that post is online, so you’ll be able to click through and read each one in turn.