sex toy reviews

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Product review: Wevibe Rave

If one was to make a list of the sexiest words you could think of, do you think “ergonomic” would make the list?  Nope.  It definitely wouldn’t.  It would be lingering around the bottom with words like “durable” and “flannelette”.  And yet, ergonomics is actually super important when it comes to sex toys.  A toy that is easy to hold and manoeuvre is vital if you have limited mobility, difficulty with grip or struggle with stamina.  In addition to just being easier to use, ergonomic toys that are designed to fit your anatomy will have a much better chance of hitting all the right spots.  And so I come to the Wevibe Rave: an ergonomic toy that works like a dream.

Wevibe seem to be well aware that “ergonomic” isn’t an exciting word, so instead they’ve opted to use the term “Sensually Sculpted” on the packaging. But what it all boils down to is the fact that the shape of this toy is just made to fit in your hand, find your pleasure buttons and work them with ease.

So what makes the shape of this toy so darn pleasing?  Well, let’s begin by looking at the curve of the Rave.  The shaft of the toy has a gentle swoop, so it resembles a boomerang.  That bend means that when inserted into a vagina, the head of the toy is already perfectly positioned against the front wall of the vagina, which is where the g-spot is located.  Many people find that the g-spot responds best to repetitive pressure rather than thrusting, so the curve of this toy provides excellent leverage for rocking the head against your g-spot.  The handle fits easily into your hand, and you need very little effort to create the perfect rocking motion.  This is great news for people with arthritis, wrist issues or limited upper body mobility.

The curve also has a second benefit.  Although the Rave is intended to be used as a g-spot vibrator, it also works as an external vibrator.  When facing downwards, the curve lines the toy up with your genitals so you’re not having to twist around to try to find the right spot.


The Rave is assymetrical, and the shaft has one side that is somewhat flat, rising up to a bulge on one side.  I was very unsure of this shape when I saw it, but in practice it’s unlike anything I’ve tried.  As I mentioned before, the Rave works beautifully when rocked against the g-spot, but it can also be twisted to create a massaging sensation.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, because it’s not really a natural instinct to twist something inside your vagina but it blew my mind.  It’s like a firm massage of the g-spot, rather than a frantic pounding.  It’s a new sensation for me and one that I love.

The asymmetric head also makes the Rave a great external vibrator, because it gives you lots of different surfaces to play with.  If you prefer a wide area of stimulation, you can lay the head of the vibe against your clitoris.  For more pinpointed precision, use the edge of the head to send vibration exactly where you want it.  I love the versatility this offers, and the fact that this shape makes the Rave suitable for a wide range of bodies and preferences.

When it comes to vibrations, the Rave offers top notch quality.  Deep, rumbly and penetrating vibrations make this toy a winner.  For me personally, my clitoris will tolerate buzzy vibes, but much prefers a rumble.  But my g-spot simply will not put up with buzzy vibrations.  It must be rumbly or my g-spot cracks a tantrum and refuses to play.  The beautifully deep vibrations of this toy make my g-spot sing.  It is also very quiet, which is unusual for such a powerful toy.

There are a couple of things that I wasn’t thrilled about with this toy.  The first one was the controls.  The Rave has three buttons on the handle: a + to turn the intensity up, a – to turn it down and a centre button to cycle through the patterns and turn the toy on and off.  However, the buttons are set right into the silicone and it’s not obvious by touch where they are.  You also have to press the buttons very firmly before they’ll respond.  On one hand, this is a good thing because it reduces the chance of inadvertently pressing the wrong button at a crucial moment.  On the other, it means that it can be frustrating to control and may pose difficulties for people with limited dexterity.

 

One way that you can get around this difficulty is by using the We-Connect app.  The app allows you to easily swipe through the different modes and increase or decrease the vibrations with a tap of a finger.  It does bother me a little that I had to use my cell phone to control my gorgeous toy, but the app does make the Rave easier to use.

 

The We-Connect app also offers an option for long-distance play with a partner.  Your partner can use their phone to control your vibrator from anywhere in the world….or at least that’s the theory.  The app easily loses connectivity in the long-distance mode, and doesn’t actually give you a warning that it’s no longer connected.  So your partner will think that they’re still controlling the toy, while you’re lying there wondering why you’ve been stuck on the same setting for five minutes.  The tagline of the app is “the app that brings couples together”, but my boyfriend and I spent most of our sexy long-distance sessions yelling at our phones and frantically texting “is it working now?” over and over. After I had such a roaring success with the Lovesense Lush, I was thoroughly disappointed that the long-distance setting on the We-Connect app wasn’t up to snuff.

Other than those two hiccups, I was really impressed with the Rave.  It has a couple of other features that I adore, such as a low-power warning and 100% body safe silicone that is soft and velvety. Overall I think the We-Vibe Rave is an excellent all-round vibrator.  It’s shape makes it extremely versatile and opens the door for inventive play.  The ergonomic design is fantastic and the vibration quality and range gives you heaps of variety to experiment with.  I adore this toy and it’s quickly become one of my nightstand favourites.

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Fun Factory Stronic Zwei Pulsator review.

This is a review that I’ve been trying to write for several months.  I bought the Stronic Zwei nearly two years ago, and it’s taken me this long to finally sit down and tell you about it.  I feel a real internal push-and-pull about this toy.  There are so many things that I love about the Stronic Zwei, and yet…..overall I’m underwhelmed.  And my reaction is partially due to the toy itself and partly due to my own expectations, so it’s kind of hard to land on a definite opinion of the Stronic Zwei.  Some days I love it, and some days I want to hurl it across the room.  But let’s go back to the beginning.

I stumbled across Fun Factory’s Stronic line when I was hunting for a new toy to add to my collection.  I was on the lookout for something new, some exciting hook that would set it apart from other toys.  And I believed that I had found it in the Stronic toys.   See, Fun Factory’s Stronic toys aren’t vibrators…they’re pulsators.  The shaft encases a magnetic plate that moves back and forth, creating a thrusting motion.  I was eager to try this pulsation for myself and spent a long time deciding which of the Stronic toys to purchase.

At the time, there were three Stronic pulsators available: The Stronic Eins, The Stronic Drei and the Stronic Zwei.  (Fun Factory has since added the Stronic G to the collection).  I spent a long time weighing up the three designs before I settled on the Zwei.  I didn’t like the long, mostly straight shaft of the Eins, because I felt the shape would bypass my g-spot.  The Drei had the curve I wanted, but I was put off by the extreme ridges which I worried would feel uncomfortable and be difficult to clean.  I settled on the Zwei because I liked the sweeping curves and smooth finish.  I was a bit wary of the fact that the Zwei is marketed as a prostate toy, but there are plenty of prostate toys that work amazingly well for g-spot stimulation so I was willing to take a chance.

When I lifted my Stronic Zwei from it’s box, I was instantly smitten by the physical features of the toy.  The shaft is the most delicious, velvety silicone that feels luxurious to touch.  The handle is hard plastic and the whole toy is quite hefty.  The three raised buttons are smooth and easy to press, but not so sensitive that they’re likely to get accidentally pushed during play.  The Stronic Zwei reminds me of a sexy pirate sword with it’s firm handle and flared pommel.

Sadly, once I put the toy into use, some of these features showed their darker side.  That velvet silicone is a total dust-magnet and this toy picks up every hair and speck of lint in the vicinity.   This toy is also the worst lube-hog in my collection.  The soft finish just seems to dry out lube exceptionally quickly, which sucks because you need quite a generous amount of lube to use this toy successfully.

The Stronic Zwei’s controls are fantastic.  They’re easy to use, intuitive and simple.  To turn the toy on and off, you press the big red FUN button.  The plus and minus buttons allow you to cycle through the different pulsation patterns.  I adore the fact that you can turn the toy off with a single click of the FUN button. The Zwei is also equipped with a travel lock so that your toy won’t accidentally get turned on in your luggage.  However, I’ve found this feature redundant because this toy is too freaking heavy for me to consider taking it with me when I travel.  It’s possibly the only toy that has been left behind on every single journey to my partner’s house, solely because it adds far too much heft to my luggage.

My play sessions with the Stronic Zwei have been equal parts joyful and frustrating.  When it works, it’s magnificent, but when it doesn’t it’s an orgasm-killer.  And it’s taken me a lot of trial and error to get to a point where I have at least as many positive sessions as sigh-inducing ones.

The main issue I have with the Zwei is a common one with most toys do anything other than vibrate.  See, when you look at such a toy on a display, and you see it thrusting away merrily, it looks really impressive.  But as soon as the business end of the toy encounters resistance (for example, when it’s buried in your vagina or anus) everything comes unstuck.  What usually happens is that the movement gets transferred to the handle, because the shaft of the toy is being held still by your body.  So in order to stabilise the toy, you have to hold the handle firmly in place.  And even then, this often results in a muffling of the motion.  I’ve never experienced the same level of movement during use as you’d get with a toy that’s just wriggling about on a display.

This is definitely the case with the Zwei.  If I try to use it hands-free, it pumps away merrily and quickly slides out of my vagina.  If I’m not holding it, it absolutely won’t stay in position for more than a few seconds.  But if I hold the handle too firmly, the pulsations pretty much grind to a halt.  So I’ve had to experiment to find just the right amount of pressure on the handle to keep the toy in place, but also to make sure that the pulsations are still powerful enough.  And if my grip varies slightly in either direction, then pleasure quickly morphs into frustration.  So often, I’ll be on the edge of an orgasm and tense or relax at the wrong moment and the toy will either freeze or slip from position, resulting in me wrenching it from my genitals and reaching for a more reliable vibrator.

When the stars and planets align and the Zwei is perfectly in place, the pulsations do feel really awesome.  It’s a very different sensation from any vibrator I’ve tried, like a very deep rumble and quake.  It doesn’t feel like thrusting to me, but it does feel great.  The Zwei has 10 vibration patterns that vary in speed and intensity.  I prefer the hard, slow shakes to the fast, galloping pulses personally.

One thing I will say in favour of the Zwei is that it’s magical as a manual dildo.  If I use it without switching the motor on, it gets me off every time.  The firm handle gives me plenty of leverage to thrust with.  The curved tip finds my g-spot effortlessly, and has an ideal firm-yet-squishy texture that massages it to perfection.  The weight of the shaft means that thrusting with your hand feels powerful, even if you’ve got weak spaghetti arms like I do.  It’s just a shame that I can’t get these orgasmic results using the toy the way it’s intended to be used.  It feels like a bit of a waste.

In the name of science, I attempted to use this toy anally just to see how it felt.  The Stronic Zwei is most definitely an advanced anal toy, and it was too much for my poor butt.  I managed to insert it no further than the first curve, and it was just too large for me.  If you are more experienced with anal play, you might really enjoy this toy, but I can honestly tell you that it’s not for beginners.

The Stronic Zwei comes with Fun Factory’s click-and-charge charger, which attaches to the base of the toy with a magnet.  Normally I’m not a fan of magnetic chargers, because it’s really easy to knock them out of position but this one makes strong contact and stays in place.  The fact that there is no open charging port means that the toy is waterproof and can be submerged for underwater play and easy cleaning.

Now, as this is a luxury sex toy, it comes with a luxury price tag.  The Fun Factory Stronic Zwei costs around $250 at full price.  I got mine on sale for $200, but it still makes it the most expensive toy in my toybox.  And honestly….I don’t think it’s worth it.   Although the toy has some amazing features and is a really innovative design, I just don’t think it’s worth paying $200 for.  Now, I take full responsibility for the fact that I chose not to buy either of the toys that are designed for vaginal use, and instead went for the prostate massager.  It’s possible that if I’d bought one of the other two designs, I might have had a better experience.  But I’m still dubious, because I don’t think that the Eins or Drei are so dramatically different that they would stay in place more effectively.  Now that Fun Factory has released the Stronic G, which is more targeted for G Spot penetration, I’d be keen to give that a shot.  But I’m not curious enough to pay upwards of $300 to find out if it’s a more effective toy.

 

I’m not willing to recommend the Stronic Zwei if you’re intending to use it as a g-spot vibrator.  While it does have many admirable features, it just isn’t terribly effective for this purpose.  Although there are other Stronic pulsators available, I can’t really comment on whether or not they are any better.  I found this particular toy good, but not good enough to warrant paying a quarter of a grand for it.