big red dragon

every year (since getting VR) I go into vr on my birthday to sort of have a mini birthday party, although it's never an actual party and usually just hanging out with 0-3 friends.
I got the idea from having been invited to other friends' VR birthdays in the past, some of which held more of an actual party with 20+ visitors etc.

Anyways, the most fun part about VR birthdays for me has always been making the hats. The first hats were just typical birthday cone hats where I'd draw a little doodle of the person whose birthday it was. Cone hats are fine and all, but I felt like they got a bit repetitive for my own VR birthdays ...

and so, on my 24th birthday (2021) i started something new: taking any kind of wacky object and putting it on an avatar's head and calling it a birthday hat.
The only criteria being:

• needs to display the number of years somewhere
• should (ideally) be sizetrashy

24th (2021): a house

when trying to think of what to do that wasn't a cone hat, i was walking back from having gotten a burger and I walked past a house I thought looked very house-like, and I snapped a few pictures to use as reference for modeling. So I basically stole a house from the local neighborhood and smashed it onto my head, nice. The number fit nicely as the house number too!
Model: Skafu

25th (2022): a washing machine

at first I was going to 1-up the house hat by putting an even bigger building on top of a head like a grain silo or something, but ultimately I didn't have time or motivation and settled for a washing machine. The number went on the display naturally.
Model: Asty

26th (2023): an airplane and part of a landing strip

This time I successfully 1-uped the house, ripping up part of a landing strip with an airplane on it. The number went both on the side of the plane and as the number on the landing strip (not visible in this picture)
Model: Fether Dragonet

27th (2024): a rollercoaster

Keeping up the size themed hats, this year I went with a rollercoaster and made it animated, 1-uping the static airplane from the previous year. The number went on the cart (which is kinda hard to notice in person because its so small and also moving). The coaster is rather ugly as a hat, but good looks was never a criteria!
Model: Ghaleas