Avatar

An avatar (previously known by Roblox as a character, or Robloxian) is a customizable entity that represents a user on Roblox. Players can use their avatars to interact with the world around them, and generally move around games. Avatars have a head, a torso, 2 arms and 2 legs, they can wear Heads, Faces, Accessories, Classic shirts, Classic pants and Gear. They can also equip. An avatar can only die in two ways: falling too far down a map or if the head and torso are separated from the neck joint. This type of death happens when the health of said avatar reaches 0 (either by dying from another player or by a script).

Controller Flags (2004–2005)
During this stage of Roblox development, the game had no actual avatars. Instead, playable characters were made through the usage of ControllerFlags, which were used in conjunction with motors in order to create vehicles that move through obstacles, or in cases like "Steer the Spheres" were used to push around a sphere using various methods.

ControllerFlags were called ControllerFlags due to the 3D flag that was over the controllable model indicating what ControllerType it was. ControllerType included "KeyboardLeft", which was WASD, "KeyboardRight", which was the arrow keys, but was later replaced with UHJK, "Flee", which ran away from other ControllerFlag models, and "Chase" which chased the nearest ControllerFlag model unless it was already chasing a model. They were removed in 2009, in favor of Vehicle Seats.

1.0
The first and most iconic version of avatars had round studs on their body parts and no moving limbs. The torso also became only one part. In 2007, avatars were given the ability to move their limbs. This avatar type is also associated with R6, which was the only avatar rig available for use until the introduction of R15.

A new head with a different shape was added to the avatar in 2009, with some giving it the nickname "shiny head" due to the tremendous amount of glare emitted from the head. The "shiny head" mesh is still used up to today, however, most of its glare is not present anymore ever since Plastic got a texture. You can still bring the old glare the head mesh had by changing the head's material to Smooth Plastic. The same goes for all other body parts.

2.0
Robloxian 2.0 is a bundle available for 15 Robux. It was introduced along with the bundle feature itself in 2010, then called "packages". The feature allowed users to optionally change their avatars to have unique body types, by buying bundles with Robux in the catalog. This was the first bundle on Roblox for players to try out for their avatar. Although it didn't get much criticism when it got introduced,It later got severe criticism because of it looking somewhat realistic and people worrying about "ODers" (online daters) using the bundle because of its realistic look.

3.0
3.0 bodies are the starter bundles for users that have registered an account in May 2014 or later. Users could choose between the Man bundle or the Woman bundle. Soon after, the starter Man bundle was changed to include a hair-type hat that costed 90 Robux, a blue and black shirt with a motorcycle print and dark green jeans. The Woman bundle, on the other hand, was given a grey striped shirt with a denim jacket and a pair of pink jeans. These bundles were introduced in 2012, but costed 75 Robux. The price was decreased for the new bundles to 25 Robux, and finally, they were available for free. This series of bundles also has a negative association, as avatar 3.0 is the default for new users and is seen as "amateur."

4.0
On March 2, 2016, 4.0 bundles ("Boy" and "Girl") were added, and are automatically received by users after signing up depending on which gender they choose. They are free bundles and resemble an updated Robloxian 2.0 but with realistic fingers on the hands instead of curved nubs. They only have 4 fingers.

Neoclassic
Neoclassic Avatars, or Classic Blocky, is the newest avatar type to be released. It was released on March 26, 2020, with the free release of the first Classic bundles into the Avatar Shop. It is a modern recreation and a mixture of 1.0 and 3.0 avatars. The avatars themselves weren't met with much criticism, but criticism arose when the bundles started to replace more commonplace bundles in the advertisement posters for Roblox.

Default avatar
Currently, the default avatar for male users starts off wearing the Man bundle, Smile face, Pal Hair, Blue and Black Motorcycle Shirt, and Dark Green Jeans. For female users, the avatar wears the Woman bundle, Smile face, Chestnut Bun, Grey Striped Shirt with Denim Jacket, and Pink Jeans. If the user doesn't select a gender, the avatar wears the Skyler bundle, Smile face, My Favorite Pizza Shirt and Black Jeans.

2006–2007
The first playable avatars were introduced on January 12, 2006. Originally, players would start with a yellow head and arms, green legs, and a blue/light blue/gray torso. The version with a blue torso has become the stereotypical "noob" look in Roblox. At the time, body colors were only available as presets, and you could choose one from a menu when you clicked Play on a game. The reason behind that was, that avatar customization didn't exist before March 2007.

2007–2009
On March 7, 2007, when avatar customization was added, it introduced new default avatar colors for users, while causing already-existing avatars to change colors as well. These avatars had a light yellow head and arms, light blue legs, and a random-colored torso.

2009–2011
On March 24, 2009, the default avatars were changed to have either white or gray heads and arms. There are also several new default torso colors, and avatars will start off wearing the Blockhead, Roundy, or Trim heads.

2011–2014
On March 23, 2011, players started receiving different avatars based on their gender. For a short time in early May 2012, new users would start without the Red Roblox Cap (and people who chose the female gender possibly started with no items as well). This was later reverted to the latter. The last player to receive this default avatar was on June 24, 2014. Players who sign up on mobile may get these avatars as a glitch instead of the 2014–present avatars. (See below.)

2014–present
On May 30, 2014, Roblox started rolling out new starting avatars to select users, and by late June, all players who signed up received these avatars. These avatars generate with the 3.0 bundles (Man and Woman) rather than 1.0, and for the first time they are given free clothing. They are still the default avatars today, though this may change sometime in 2021 as Roblox tests new character creation pages for players during the sign-up process. In 2014, they had a Roblox "R" or the Bloxxer T-Shirt just like the previous default avatars. This was removed in 2015.

Since January 2017, new users have R15 enabled on their avatars by default.

2016–present
In 2015, Roblox started testing out avatars for the Xbox One. In January 2016, Roblox released on Xbox One. The avatars in which you start on Xbox is different to the other platforms.

2017-2019
They originally had R6 equipped, but they have since been updated to R15.

2019-2021
In early September 2019, Roblox removed skin color from the faces of these avatars, causing them to change.

2021-present
In December 2021, Roblox removed skin color from the clothes/body parts of these avatars, causing them to change.

2019–2020
In December 2019, Roblox started rolling out a new sign up page to select players, including 8 default avatars, and a fully customizable avatar editor.

In April 2020, these two avatars (along with two others) were discontinued to add four more preset avatars.

2019–2021
The avatars below were also added in December 2019, but were removed later than the previous four due to the new sign up page being removed and reverted to the previous sign up page. In December 2020, a beta released for a new Roblox client which added these avatars back to the sign up page, with some of the avatars having different skin tones. They were only available on the client. In June 2021, the client started to be in use and these avatar options were removed.

2020
In April 2020, the Kenneth, Cindy, Dennis and Lindsey avatars were added to the default avatars on the new sign up page, removing four other avatars.

They were later removed when the sign up page was reverted to its previous form.

2020–present
On September 8, 2020, Roblox completely removed the gender selection buttons on the sign up page for some users worldwide. Instead of picking a gender, users get an avatar that is "genderless" after they sign up which starts with the Skyler bundle, My Favorite Pizza Shirt, Black Jeans, Down to Earth Hair, and Smile. Through the settings page, they can still change their gender. Some users voiced their displeasure with this new avatar on social media and the feature of having no gender to select was later removed on every users browsers almost a week later. However, it was re-added and you can still get this default avatar if you don't select a gender when signing up for an account.

R15
R15 is an avatar rig. Instead of the regular 6 joints, it uses 15, allowing for more fluid animation. R15 was officially announced in this blog. Beta testing for this new feature came out on February 18, 2016. It was fully released on September 29, 2016, and users can switch to the rig via the Avatar customization page. Extra animation bundles for this were added later and can be purchased from the catalog, which have been positively received as the most appealing part of this rig. (R6 is usually preferred from a nostalgic viewpoint).

Interestingly, even though this was released back in October 2016, files of R15 date back to 2013, and some even as early as 2012. (This could possibly be a bug).

On May 16, 2018, the R15 limbs' smoothness was reduced, and had a notable gap between the limbs. This was done so that the block rig would be compatible with Rthro's scaling.

Rthro


Rthro is the 2nd newest avatar type to be released. Rthro scaling was released on October 22, 2018, with the first Rthro bundle releasing a day later on October 23, 2018. It usually needs the R15 body type to work correctly.

Trivia

 * The first characters had medium green pants, a bright blue, grey, green, light blue or a light red torso, and a yellow, brown, pinkish and light brown head and arms, resembling what many players call a Roblox noob.
 * Avatars were originally meant to be plastic robots, hence the "Ro-" part of Roblox.
 * To get an image of any user's avatar including terminated ones, the endpoint https://www.roblox.com/Thumbs/Avatar.ashx?x=_&y=_&Format=Png&username=_ can be used. Replace the underscores after x= and y= with the required width and height, and the underscore after username= with the username of the player.
 * There are a number of similar user/person definable characters and/or avatars like these such as Whatnots from The Muppets, Anything Muppets from Sesame Street, Miis from the Nintendo consoles, and Piantas from the Super Mario series.
 * A user can change the colors of their avatar's limbs; if the user is not wearing a shirt, players can see the color of its torso.
 * Up until 2013, the player's torso color would change to the color of the team they were on, their head would become yellow, and their arms and legs would become dark gray.
 * Avatars from 2006 to 2007 didn't have bevels on their limbs.
 * According to an admin post, avatars are only 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) tall, while Rthro (if put on the maximum scale) avatars are 6.5 inches (16.51 centimeters) tall.
 * Having different limbs (ex. smaller limbs or bigger limbs) doesn't actually give an advantage on games such as obstacle course games. This is due to all models having the same hitbox.
 * Users used to have circle studs on their shoulders until March 2009.Model.jpg
 * In early 2007, the icon for an avatar looked different, as seen with in the picture to the right.
 * Shoes were going to be a form of accessory. It was an idea that was thought of in 2007, but due to technical issues and modeling problems, they were ultimately scrapped.
 * Back in 2007, a screenshot of the first Hair accessory on Roblox was uploaded. It was supposed to be released in 2007, but it became unused and scrapped after that.
 * On September 17, 2019, a large amount of glare was added to newly generated avatar thumbnails. This was due to the transition to new lighting technology.
 * Sometimes, your newly created account won't have its necessary peripherals on them, such as a classic shirt.
 * Your avatar can glitch out on your profile page but the chances of this happening are extremely rare.
 * Up until 2013, characters not wearing a package or clothes would have studs.
 * Most default avatars up until 2015 wore a ROBLOX "R" or the Bloxxer T-shirt.