Toy Properties
Form: Fantasy Toy |
Vendor: Bad Dragon
Last month I visited Arizona, the origin state of Bad Dragon for the first time in my life. Blown away by the harsh beauty of desert, I will most likely visit again, though in a month when the temperatures are a bit more modest. Having returned from my travels, what would be more fitting than reviewing a triple of knotty wyrm toys that have been lurking in my playroom for quite some time?
Continuing onwards to San Francisco I picked up some new toys that are also in high demand review-wise like the new absurdly large Oxballs Pig-Holes or some classics from Friendly Toys. So I think there will be an Anal Toy Special incoming soon, probably mid-September when the summer extravaganza schedule has died down a bit.
Construction
The literal core of every anal toy is the material which is it made out of. Back in 2008 Bad Dragon way one of the first companies which only used pure platinum silicone. Their level of experience shows in every toy. Bad Dragon is hands down the industry standard when it comes to coloration! Platinum silicone is a material which takes on colors really easily but mastery of shades and patterns, the use of glow in the dark and UV reactive colors is unmatched by any one in the anal toy industry until now! To help you find your dream coloration, Bad Dragon has a 3D configurator on their website which also features a sizing tool.
The sizing tool should be used with a grain of salt though. I have been ordering toys from their website for almost 10 years now and despite a good imagination how big a toy will be and despite the sizing tool, I sometimes end up with toys which are way larger than expected or considerably smaller (like my large Tempest which I imagined to be bigger than the toy which I have gotten). So I have a few toys which I just keep as the silicone sculptures they are declared as in the custom form and rarely use because they need really (in)experienced holes for them to bring pleasure.
An important decision when configuring your toy is choosing the right firmness. Bad Dragon offers four firmnesses now which are Extra-Soft (Shore 00-50), Soft (Shore A2), Medium (Shore A5) and Firm (Shore A8 which is still relatively soft). The larger a toy, the firmer it will feel because there is more mass to compress. Harder firmnesses will also make texture feel more rugged. Spikes the massage in soft firmness can actually start to feel scratchy (but will never actually scratch because the material is too soft). It will also make the toy harder to take because the more complex and rigid the surface, the harder it will be for the hole to relax and open up. If you want to ride your toy, choosing a firm base with a differently firm shaft is always a good idea because it will give the toy a better stand.
Finally you can customize a toy with various options: The suction cup is probably the most often chosen one as it gives the toy an even better stand than a firm base. The cup is really deep and uses the entire surface of the base so it can create a heavy duty vacuum. If you like to play in your bathroom, the suction cup is almost a must-have because it allows you to fix the dildo onto the floor or a tiled wall. Last year Bad Dragon introduced their version of a Vac-U-Lock hole, the Dragon Mount. This opened Bad Dragon toys to a world of accessories from grips over suction cups to fuck machines. However most fuck machines cannot handle the weight and length of massive XL silicone toys. When you are playing with a partner, the hole can also be an anchor point for your thumb for better guiding the toy into his anus. Sadly the suction cup is incompatible with their Dragon Mount Vac-U-Lock hole so it is hard to recommend which one to get. Usually, I always recommend to get the hole because it opens the world to such versatile play. But historically I have been getting most Bad Dragons with a suction cup and never missed the Dragon Mount hole on my newer toys where I could have gotten it instead of the suction cup. Maybe this is a good piece of advice: When you order smaller toys and have a fuck machine, go for the Dragon Mount. For XL toys, the suction cup is the better option because it will keep your toy from sliding away when knotting HARD. The finally add-on is the cum tube. It is a silicone tube which runs through the shaft until the tip of the head. At the bottom is syringe is attached which can be filled with cum lube to shoot into your rectum. Especially with large toys you need large quantities of lube to full the tube with lube before it shoots into your body. For this short-lived effect the cleaning effort increases massively. I have tried the effect several times and it was not worth the effect, increased cleaning effort and more difficult handling (the cum tube and syringe is permanently attached to the toy and dangles around). But after every Bad Dragon review I publish, I get several messages by people who are in love with their cum shooting toy. So before you choose one, I recommend trying it out with a friend’s toys if the added sensation is worth everything it entails. Or buy a Lil’Squirt from Bad Dragon as a try out toy.
Before I take a look at how the different toys perform in play, let’s talk about why next to coloration and different degrees of firmness, platinum silicone is the best material for anal toys. Most importantly, platinum silicone is 100% body safe. Unlike other materials which often use non-body safe plasticizers, platinum silicone does not leak any substances which can be dangerous in the short or long term. However, this only applies to the base material! Chinese toy companies have been known to use colors and dyes which are potentially dangerous and which can leak into your rectum. The rectum’s mucosa is one of the most absorbent body parts. So be very careful what kind of substances you are introducing to this body area!
Speaking of being careful what you are putting into your body, platinum silicone has a supersmooth surface. So it can be easily cleaned and it makes it difficult for bacteria to linger. For cleaning simple put the toy in warm dishsoap water, let it soak and rinse it off (I take post play bath with the toys on a regular basis). For extra cleaning, spray them with sanitizer or put them in an autoclave. In order to keep the toys beautiful for years to come, do not store them together with other materials. Different plasticizers can damage the toy. The same applies for silicone lube. The silicone oil can solvate the silicone so better stick to water- or oil-based lube. Finally, especially soft silicone can easily crease of get dents. So best store the toys upright without touching other toys.
Playing Tempest
Tempest starts out with a conically, slightly triangular glans. At the top there is a small dent where the urethra (or cum tube) would be. If you run your finger tips over the glans, you can feel a very slight ridge at the top side but to be frank even a very sensitive anus cannot feel it. The head sticks out very prominently from the shaft so there is a deep rim around it.
From below the glans, the shaft bows softly to all sides, especially towards the front and thus gently stretching the sphincter. Except a narrow smooth ventral groove the entire shaft is textured. The sides are only shallowly textured while on the opposite side of the ventral groove there is a cluster of more intense texture. Unlike on most other Bad Dragon toys, the ridges and bumps do not look like scales but imitate feathers. The texture depth is a medium shallow so it is noticeable without irritating the hole too much, especially in softer firmnesses.
The plumage faces downwards which helps taking the toys deeper and creates very different sensations depending on whether you push the toy in or pull it out. When you push Tempest in, the bumps gently massage the sphincter. The untextured ventral groove presses against the prostate while the shaft extends outwards. Once you reverse the motion, the feather tips push against the anus, making the release of the next ridge a bit jerky instead of a smooth motion. Due to the smooth edges and relatively shallow texture depth, it does not feel like a barb but a more intense feeling of the texture. Especially when twisting the toy while fucking a bottom with Tempest creates an interesting sensation because the going in feels noticeable different than the pulling out.
There is a small, yet interesting design feature above the base. Below the narrowest point downwards towards the base, the texture gets deeper. So when resting while riding or when really bearing down on the toy, it actually becomes more intense. One testee called it the rewards for taking Tempest all the way. When you choose the a size above medium, the Tempest’s tip actually starts stimulating your second sphincter when you go so deep so both of your sphincters get teased hard when bouncing and riding it all the way down.
All of this in combination with the easily opening up glans make Tempest a good beginner toy and perfect for people who’s hole is not so experienced with textured toys but want to venture in this direction.
Playing with Orochi
The general shape of Orochi is defined by different strands or tentacles converging together at the top. The head is formed by nine distinct veins which are textured with downwards facing v-shaped scales. Because of this, the head is heavily textured and very stimulating. Except the apex tip itself which is dull. So taking Orochi requires a bit of prestretch with tapering toys before trying to take him. But just riding and teasing the hole with the texture, letting it slide along the closed anus can be a delightful foreplay.
Like the head, the shaft is formed by different strands or tentacles. They are bulging and turning, creating nooks and recesses and an almost knot-like shape. So when riding Orochi, there is not like that one knotting moment but an ebb and flow of pressure and release. The different strands are lined with scale-like texture which gets increasingly coarse from the sides to the center. Left and right the scales are small, like on a sneak. On top they are shallow horizontal ridges like a dragon’s armor.
Through the oval shape and the way he curves, Orochi has a distinct from front and back. However, he is not so directionally shaped like knotted toys that you cannot ride him perpendicularly. When you push down that way, your prostate will ride down along the curve of the lateral strands. Not only will the micro texture irritate the prostate in a delightful way, but through the curvature the pressure will be a wave of increase, decrease and then increase again.
Like most complex toys, Orochi is best enjoyed inside the hands of a skilled fister. Through altering the insertion angle the head’s texture can feel coarser or smoother for more or less anus stimulation. Because the different strands are quite prominent, twisting the head inside the anus has its own turbine like quality. Once completely inserted twisting (while moving him in and out) is also very fun. This way different textures can stimulate different areas. It is quite fun to irritate/ tire out the hole with one texture and turn the toy 90°, introducing the coarser, bigger scales to the area which before was only exposed to the micro texture.
Despite the complex pattern, when you have trained your hole a bit and have done some prestretching. Orochi is not that hard to take. Especially in soft, it is a good toy for a texture beginner to try to experience different patterns and stimulations. Since the bulge comes gradually instead of a big, dull knot, you can ride the toy and conquer it over time.
Playing with Slater
If you take away all the texture, Slater is a triple knot toy which will increasingly stretch your sphincter. But luckily you cannot take away the texture which makes Slater to one of the most interesting and difficult to describe toy.
The sides of all three knots are textured with thin, curveted highly raised wall-like ridges. The top of these ridges are textured with very small bumps. The top and the bottom of the “shaft” are textured with lines of higher raised bumps. The surface between these lines is textured with a very shallow scale pattern.
When just riding Slater up and down, most of his magic is lost. The complex texture makes him actually hard to take. There is always something in the way, resisting to just gently slip through the sphincter. Pulling out, the texture massages the sensitive anus. If you are lying relaxed in a sling or are flexible enough to move around on the toy, Slater is a unique hole pleaser. The texture which before made it difficult to take the toy deeper now suddenly starts to caress and massage. Ridges start to scratch just the right place or add pointed pressure on the prostate.
The base is textured with curved bands of points horns. When you knot the toy completely and start grinding the base, they can stimulate the outside of your prostate or your clitoris if you stick it up your front hole. If you want to engage into this kind of play, I do not recommend getting the toy in firm of choose a firm base. While the horns might look small, in firm firmness, they can be VERY rigid and unforgiving.
While Tempest was a beginner’s toy, Slater is for connoisseurs and textured experienced people. When you just dully ride the toy, it will feel boring, almost annoying. It takes time to discover and explore the very complex bulges and recesses. Slater can be enjoyed alone; one of my testees placed him in a yoga block he could turn easily to get the stimulation just where he wanted it to be. But he really starts to shine when you can completely relax and let someone else guide you through the many stimulations this very complex toy has to offer.