Four Bits By Bink

Anyone who is well familiar with the Safari is familiar with the name Bink Draconia. I think the first time we had a proper group visit with her was back in 2016 on her grid Kroatan. 

That's a classy name for a grid, Kroatan. Grid names should be catchy, short, and imaginative, don't you think? 

In fact, that name was our first clue to the level of talent we were going to come into contact with, on her Halloween build, made in collaboration with the wonderful Kiki Bailey and with a storyline by Malon Wyngard - you can read about it here. 

Flash forward eight years, and Bink continues to deliver fabulous builds, now on Marlon Wayne's Pangea grid. 

You may remember seeing in 2023 Bink's The Good Place build, which is not just a triumph of landscaping, but a full-on game that shadows the plot of the television series. It's a brilliant synthesis of the story, with a decor so close to the real thing at times that you feel like you're inside your TV. 

But Bink has other fab regions on Pangea to visit, and this post highlights four of them, conveniently set close together in the Great Pangea Ocean. The region names are: Eternal Ice, North Pole, Koburk, and Needful Things. The addresses are, of course, at the end of the post - but what can you expect to see if you go there?

First up, in this hot RL weather, let's give a shout out to Eternal Ice. It's a  build full of sunbeams and flowers but with a decidedly frosty feel to it, like air conditioning for the eyes, it's a place that will calm and sooth your nerves with its romantic ruins, pastel shade trees...

... a playground in the purest sense, with its the chessboard motif and the glowing piano sculpture. The best word to describe it is 'chill'.

Eternal Ice: in German Edwiges Eis

After getting your fair share of ice (mine came with tonic and lemon) you should make sure you have bookmarked the next sim, Stella Polaris. You'll be glad you did later in the year! 

Stella Polaris arrival

This is a Christmas themed build, with a giant size Advent Calendar, lots of snowy scenery, and the classic teutonic Weihnachtsmarkt trinkets, everything you'd expect.

on Stella Polaris

But perhaps, like me, Kris Kringle doesn't really float your boat. No worries, there are lots of other lovely corners here, like this raft where you can cool your toes while admiring the Northern Lights.

Koburk. You can tour the sim in a hot air balloon

Another lovely landscape build is Koburk - loving the sheep and the train that looks like something out of a vaguely post-apocalyptic story. Don't panic - everything's fine, the very cute thatched  mill is still working, so I guess dinner is guaranteed. Or dinner rolls, at least. 

Koburk

Bink built this sim to be photographed and it tempts you from every side to get panoramas and close-ups of this rural idyll. 

But don't rush away from the Landing point too fast. If you're too much in a hurry, you might miss the tp board that takes you to the Open Air Theater ... 

This is pure opensim gold. You can start the show any time, make sure you have volume up so you can hear the sounds and music on all these sims, they're an essential element. The show only lasts a few minutes but it is glorious fun, the protagonists Dietmar & Helma are so cool they have even autographed their photos on the Notice Board. Star quality singing and dancing, although Dietmar is a teeny bit sweary... sigh, these NPCs, the fame goes to their heads a bit.

Back down at ground level in the Landing zone on Koburk, there is also this sign...  

... it is advertising a Hunt game on today's final destination, Needful Things.

Let's go there!

To call Needful Things a gorgeous freebie sim is an understatement. With its brightly colored houses with crow-stepped gables, the cobbled streets and canal, and the frequent tram service, it's a place to visit even before you realize that many of the shops contain Freebies. 

The little town has its own police station and hospital, a store dedicated to textures, others for shapes and bom, seasonal decor, accessories and outfits, and so on. 

Quite a bit of content for your viewer to digest... 

this is the sim loading on arrival ...

The general feel of this sim is that these freebies aren't great blocks of content finagled en masse from you know where, but more like a selection of items that Bink must have found in her travels, liked a lot, and thought worth sharing.  

Three other attractions here on Needful Things ... 

Gacha machines, (it awarded me a sofa that I totally don't need, but it's always fun to win!)

... and you can hire Toilet Paper from the " Klopapier verleih" pallet under the poster, and ooh, ooh, this Retro store is worth a visit also! 

Finally, the cinema, which was showing the ...Matrix?

You know what, after all that shopping and laughing, I totally forgot to look for the "Crack The Bank Safe" game on this sim! Let us know in the comments if you find it...

HG Addresses:

hop://pangeagrid.de:8002/Eternal%20Ice/102/166/22

hop://pangeagrid.de:8002/Stella%20Polaris/122/122/21

hop://pangeagrid.de:8002/Koburk/147/47/44

hop://pangeagrid.de:8002/Needful%20Things/110/53/22