A Spanking Bench from Darkstar with a Togepi fettered onto it

At the Kinky Venus a broad range of BDSM furniture makers exhibited their craft. On the lower end of the market, accessibly priced wooden furniture from BDSM Craft and Darkstar were presented. The makers really utilize the material properties of wood by offering highly customizable playroom equipment without breaking the bank. There was one steel furniture maker but their spanking benches, crosses and cages were very basic yet premium priced. If I spend that kind of money, I would like to see the refinement and countless customization options which Stylefetish or Evil Toys offer. From a technical point of view, I was impressed by the multifunctional BDSM bed from X-Design. The a bit bulky frame hides electrically operated drawers for toys, an electrically retractable pillory at the bottom, discreet below bed storage for a St. Andrews Cross, LED lighting and much more. The aesthetic with quilted padding clearly speaks to a straight audience which prefers a discreet design for the martial bedroom. But ingenuity enthuses me!

St. Andrews Cross from BDSM Craft

It was also interesting to see how many new BDSM rental spaces are starting to popping up. From a more rustic ambience of the Verdorbene Welten playspaces close to the Czech border in my current home state of Saxony to the upscale boutique resort of The Kink which will feature a SPA, new developments for every fantasy, budget and within not too long travel distance are entering the market. Since the minority of kinksters have the privilege of an own playroom in their home, having easily accessible location to escape the everyday stress for a few hours and immerse yourself in kink is great! Maybe I should start reviewing BDSM play spaces to give all the Americans traveling abroad to live out the forbidden fantasies some orientation.

There were a few BDSM toy vendors who offered a wide selection of middle of the road toys. There was a specialized booth for Asian made stainless steel toys over, several wood impact toy makers, some restraint specialists and full BDSM assortment shops. Of notice was first Vilain Garcon from Montréal. Formerly only an online shop specializing in heavy rubber bondage gear, they have opened a shop in Berlin just 2½ months ago. I am getting more and more review requests for their gear so sooner or later I will have to put some of their stuff through its paces.

The Multi-Functional BDSM Bed from Design-X

The most exciting discovery toywise was Angletoys from the Czech Republic which focuses on custom made leather impact toys. Most attention grabbing were their crocodile hides. While being a lightweight hide, the bone plate reinforced scales deliver a very unique and biting experience. I could play around with a crocodile’s tail which would make for a unique Dragon’s Tail. Personally, a different toy caught my eye. The basic shape is a long, narrow rectangle like a ruler. Between two layers of leather a piece of stainless spring steel is sown. Unlike most spring steels stabilizing leather impact toys, they chose a very flexible spring. So the impact toy is snappy and quite bitey, at least when you choose soft and thin leather. Staying true to Angletoys focus on custom toys this toy can also come almost be made in absurdly 6mm thick bull hide which feels as solid as wood and has not flex despite the spring steel. The length and the width are defined by your specification like the hide it is made out of. They also offer Saffiano-like textured leather which had a nice abrasive bite. I might need treat myself to one of their toys rather sooner than later.

The Ruler Shaped Impact Toy from Angel Toys

When I talked to the owner, he admitted that their website is basically an enhanced contact form which only features their more basic products. For the (good) custom stuff you should mail them which is a shame. If I only looked on their website, they would never have entered my toy maker shortlist. Because of this expos are so interesting because many of kink makers are excellent at their craft but not good at presenting it online. So they don’t get the attention they deserve. Of course, in order to access Angeltoys’ full potential you already need to know what you want and need which limits the circle of potential customers a bit. Again, meeting them in person at a fair and discussing your custom commission is probably the best way to go.

Another interesting toy design came from the Bavarian whip and impact toy company Weppyland (no link for reasons). They are braided leather single tails with either a short flogger end or leather eyelet at the top and a carabiner at the bottom. Unlike whips with a pommel you fetter the whip around your wrist using the carabiner. The eyelet whip can possibly be equipped with different crackers and tongues though they did not show those at the fair. Probably at the beginning of the next year I will review a completely different toy from McHurt where I show you how that works and where to get tongues. The eyelet whip can also double as a very narrow choking collar (be very careful due to the narrowly focused force!), a leash or a stylish wrist band. Both whips come in different length to accommodate your personal play style. As intrigued and fascinated I am by the whips and the fact that they come from Germany, sadly, for reasons you will find in the final section before my conclusions, I will not buy one of their toys despite.

Bargain on Nipple Clamps at Eis.de

Sometimes you find pleasant kinky surprises in unexpected places like the booth from Eis.de, one of Germany’s largest online retailers for sex toys. They sold nipple clamps for 2.49€ at the fair which is an unbeatable price. Since these kinds of toys are all coming from random manufacturers in Asia, they are as good as from every other place. So visit all sex toy booths even if you don’t think you could find anything worth your while. You might be surprised!

Besides BDSM toys, a few booths selling art stood out to me. They sold appealing and well made art pieces. In tune with the overwhelming male audience, the art mostly only portrait women and a few couples. There were no male only art works, especially ones focusing on male genitalia. Since there are a few women and bisexual males at the fair, maybe one or two male art works could also sell.

Part I: An Expo Review – Part III: The (Non-)Trendy – Part IV: The Challenging – Part V: The Weird & Final Thoughts

Due to a change in EU regulations, for about three years CBD has been added to almost every personal wellness product. So it was just a question of time until they were added to lube. Howl, a British lube brand, exhibited at the Queer Venus. According to their founder, the lube will not make you high (CBD never does) but will make your sphincter both more relaxes and the sensations more intense. CBD is also said to make you a bit more in tune with yourself and the people around you. From the look of it, it sounds like an interesting product and I was given two sample sachets I will try out. From a scientific point of view, there is almost no academic research to the (sexual) effect of CBD. So I cannot judge the claims. But once I have tried the lube samples, I will let you know on my Insta and Bluesky!

Howl CBD Lube Samples in Both Varieties Silicone and Water Base Lube

Anuux has been in national German media recently. Their founders presented their product at the German version of Shark Tank. They have made a pill filled with psyllium husks, chia and flax seeds. Taking six of those per day should make cleaning out unnecessary due to the amount of fiber the swelling seeds create which should push all the feces down in one or two big dumps per day. They did not get the funding because the investors had doubts that large number of people would pay 1€ per day for being always read for anal sex. Like most gays I have been using psyllium husks as a clean out facilitating fiber supplement for years. It helps a bit but more important are the general diet and not snacking because any addition of food creates a new package that needs to move down the colon. So while my pure psyllium pills help me get clean more quickly, they are not making my rectum always fuck-ready. And we have not even started out talking about fisting.

For my pure psyllium husk pills I pay about 4.2 cents per pill. Anuux pills with added chia and flax seeds costs between 15 Cents and 16.6 Cent of which you should take three in the morning and three in the evening, so I see the point of the Sharks. Again I was given a sample for three days which should be enough for the effect to kick in. Next Saturday I have a fisting date in the books and I will use the pills to get ready for that. Again, watch my Insta and Bluesky for a short experience review.

A Three Day Sample of Anuux which are Supposed to Make you Always-Ready for Anal Sex

Another a bit concerning health trend that made its way to Venus are online prescription services for  erectile dysfunction medication. The representative from GoSpring marketed their service as an online community where you can learn to manage the factors that can cause ED like stress, performance anxiety or bad nutrition. A part of this service is an online consultation with a doctor which will enable you to order Spring. This is a spray containing Sildenafil, the active agent in Viagra. Four pumps into your throat deliver 50mg, the same amount of one Viagra pill. Since the throat mucosa is very receptive for agents, it should work considerably faster than swallowing a pill which depending on your digestion takes 45 – 90 minutes to kick in. While on the one hand I see the market for such a service because many men have problems talking about their ED, even to their doctors, Sildenafil affects the cardio-vascular system. Because of that initial prescriptions of ED medication are usually given under close consultation with a GP after a physical check-up. Most only prescription services nudge the people to give the right answers which lead to a prescription; some even use dark patterns. I have not gone through the process of GoSpring so I cannot say how their process is designed. But I want to warn you not to take ED medication without a physical check of your cardio-vascular system. Otherwise sexy time can lead to a heart attack.

Maybe Next Year’s Trend- Welded Furniture out of a Nuts

What surprised me was the lack of trends that I guessed would be more present. After the VR hype a couple of years ago and the accelerating adoption of headsets, I was expecting more than just one company which offered VR porn. The same can be said about AI porn. There were only two companies. One company which offered animee style videos and pictures through simple user prompts. It looked cute and is probably a useful tool for the people who are into this kind of aesthetic, especially when you are into niche kinks. The other company was OhChat. They create digital avatars of porn models. The user can give them commands to create individual interactions and porn. The quality is spookingly good! A trained I can spot that the content is AI created. The bodies and surroundings are just too smooth and perfect and thus are easily identified as AI. But the movement is very natural, even the facial expression or the shooting of cum and squirting. The voice synthesis is almost natural with modulation and intonation being hard to distinguish from real humans. While creators can upload content and voice samples from themselves to let the AI create a digital twin, there a completely AI created avatars available on OhChat (easily identified as portraits lacking a checkmark) which almost look, act and sound human within the described limitations. Is that part of the future of porn where actors never age and do what you want them to do just for you?

Never out of Fashion: A Simple Spanking Bench

The Venus reflected the transition from big porn studios to self-employed adult performers and content creators. I only noticed two porn studios which sold and raffled away their remaining DVD stock. The stages and booths were from Pornhub, MyDirtyHobby, Darkfans and so on. Very noticeable was the absence of OnlyFans, probably the largest platform in the industry. Apparently they have entered the cultural zeitgeist so much that they don’t need to advertise. Everybody knows them already. The shift from studios with legal departments to single entrepreneurs created an entire industry of specialized legal firms, copyright enforcement agencies and privacy protectors. If you are a content creator, the Venus is a good space to get an overview of what is currently legally and technically possible to protect your livelihood.

Related to that topic, I talked to about two dozen adult creators about the shift to a sadly more conservative zeitgeist. While sex work is one of the oldest jobs in the world and will never go away, the random deletion of Instagram profile, the Tumblr purge or changes to Twitters recommendation algorithm can quickly destroy important advertising channels. In a bitter instance of irony was the Venus Instagram account taken down during the fair and has not been restored at the date of this publishing. While most of the fans and porn websites reside in Canada, the Netherlands or Cyprus and are thus somewhat shielded from direct US influence, IP blocks like Germany did to some websites for not complying with local age protection laws can quickly be implemented in one of the largest markets for adult entertainment in the world. To my surprise none of the creators were too concerned about that. While most had social media accounts deleted, having one or even several backup accounts have become the standard. Building a new following every couple of months has become part of doing adult entertainment business. But beyond the creators were not too concerned because, like I said, there will always be a demand for adult entertainment. Let’s see how easily it will remain accessible in the years to come and how the market will fragment.

Part I: An Expo Review – Part II: The Cool – Part IV: The Challenging – Part V: The Weird & Final Thoughts

First of all I need to talk about the elephant in the middle of the room: Prices straight people are apparently willing to pay toys and gear! Very basic leather harnesses made out of neither deburred nor burnished leather costs more than the soft and exceptionally well made ones from Army of Men or Mr S. For the price of some basic wooden paddles I could get a custom single tail from Alpha Whips. The rubber gear sold was between 0.25mm and 0.5mm grade and thus has a very limited lifetime but priced like a Blackstyle heavy rubber suite. Mass produced vinyl dildos rivaled customized Bad Dragon platinum silicone anal toys. Despite what the stronger presence of alternative lifestyles and sex life in the media, exploring and living out sexual desires beyond the missionary vanilla sex is still considered a taboo. This leads to lower market transparency. So people are paying higher prices. Luckily gays are less afraid to talk about sex with their peers and share shopping tips. Because of this the prices are lower and the product quality is higher because scalpers would quickly be called out. So I urge straight people to jump over their shadows and at least look at gay focused online stores. Yes, the models are male instead of big boobed women but you might be surprised how inexpensive toys get a dude instead of a demimondaine is advertising them.

The Realdoll Sex Doll which Greatly Disturbed Me

There were over a dozen manufacturers from sex dolls. In a world where loneliness is called an epidemic and real intimacy gets harder and harder to get some groups of people, I guess they are the answer when the primal urges which broad over 30,000 people to the expo are not being satisfied. Sex dolls have come a long way from the cheap blowup “air mattresses” and evolved sexy dressed into mannequins which at least for me create a strong uncanny valley effect. But I don’t judge. Everybody has different preferences and kinks and there is actually a growing sex doll fetish scene. Yet my tolerance was tested realdool, a for better lag of words animatronics torso stump. The doll features AI for she can talk, move and responds to the physical and verbal input you are giving. In the PR material the manufacturer claims for skin to have real touch. But for me, it felt like a little bit rougher silicone surface I have on some of my anal toys. It lacked the warm and silky feeling of human skin. Yet some of the straight people who fingered her front hole claimed for it to feel like a real vagina. So far I can understand the fascination with the doll, though it is a pricey one between 11,000€ and 24,000€, depending on the configuration. But what completely threw me off that the doll is stumps where arms and legs are supposed to be. In my eyes, it was just an amputated block of pseudo-flesh, reduced to a being a desemination machine. Maybe I am too deep inside the uncanny valley and am certainly not the target group for this toy, seeing this erotic automaton made me feel uneasy and reminded me of the Spielberg film A.I..

Just before leaving the fair, I have a very unpleasant experience. On my first round through the halls, I did not buy anything, in order not to burden myself with bags. But there were a few interesting things, most for individual order but Weppyland from Bavaria had one thing I wanted to take with me right away: A wooden acupressure toy which could probably also be used for sensation, wax and maybe also knife play and just cost 15€. I approached the sexy athletic porn performer (?) working on the booth, asking where to pay. He directed me to the owner who was operating the card terminal. I already had my phone unlocked, when she told me that card payment is only possible from 20€ on upwards (still a sad standard in Germany despite being 2025). So I put the toy down and pulled out my wallet which hold the typical amount of cash I carry around with me: 5€ and change. So I told her “Sorry, I don’t have 15€ in cash. If you I cannot pay by card, I cannot buy it today.” which she declined. So I said goodbye and wished her a successful fair. While I was still standing next to her, she turned to the guy and said loudly to him “When somebody does not have 15€ in cash in his wallet, he has not real intention on buying anything anyway.”

Wrap Around Eyelet Whip as a Wrist Band and Carabiner Fettered Miniflogger Single Tail

First, if you have to make such a remark, you wait until the person you are talking about is out of earshot! This is one of the fundamental rules of retail: You do not bitch about customers when they or in fact any are around because it reflects back badly on you. Sex and especially kink toys are a luxury good (especially when you look at the prices straight people are apparently willing to pay) so they are an extreme people business. The customer needs to feel good, understood and comfortable with you. In the shopping process you have to dream their sexual dream with them and making your product the key to unlock the fantasy. Anything that disrupts the flow makes a successful current and future transaction unlikely. Personally, I was intrigued by the wrap-around-the-wrist whips both from a toy collector and impact player perspective. Finding a good whip maker from Germany would be great! Maybe they would have offered a deal during Black Friday which might have enticed me to buy both. But frankly, this quickly said short sentence destroyed my positive feelings towards Weppyland and the owner. Why would I now support them by giving them my money and down the road giving them exposure by a review on my website (I guess enough people will now Google them now anyway. I refuse to link them here as the only company in this article)? While their whips would have made an interesting addition to my collection, I currently own north of 40 single whips and flogger. If you live in Germany and want to buy more or less locally, I recommend McHurt and Peitschenhandel. They both have physical stores in Berlin where they carry way more items than they display online and where you can try them on. If you are open to paracord-based whips, Alphawhips in Cologne makes awesome single tails (my gift to myself for my 36^th birthday). He is often in Berlin for events, so send him an e-mail if you want to try his stuff for yourself.

Vilain Garcon, their Berlin Store is an Example of how Customer Experience is Done Right in the Kink World

Second, if above-10€ card transactions are uneconomically for you, you on the one hand need a new acquirer! On the other hand, you need to calculate your prices accordingly. If your profit margin is too low to allow for card payments for small take-away articles on trade shows, you are closing yourself off from customers who maybe visit your booth last and spent all the cash. Finally, if all of that is for whatever reason is not viable, calculate how much money you would lose on the few transaction where people really have no cash. In retail marketing, there is a term called the “moment of truth”, where a good personal service experience turns a neutral customer into a positive one. How great would it have been if Mrs. Boyadzhieva said “As I said, we usually only take card from 20€. But I really want you to have this toy and I make an exception for you!” This might have lowered my reservation price for their whips, yet alas it did not happen.

As you can tell from the time I am spending on writing about this, this last interaction I had before leaving the Venus made a big negative impression on me. For over 20 years I have worked in high end luxury retail and luxury good marketing. Bad customer experience for a product nobody really needs really pisses me off because good customer experience is not difficult and expensive, yet is so often treated as a commodity instead of an essential.

Part I: An Expo Review – Part II: The Cool – Part III: The (Non-)Trendy – Part V: The Weird & Final Thoughts

The Weinfly Abormination of Mixing White Wine with Energy Drink Ingredients

On every fair, there are exhibitors which are just (hilariously) odd. The first I stumbled upon is Hyla. Hyla is a German vacuum cleaner manufacturer which is sold through network marketing. So one of their distributors in Berlin thought “What are house wives who are trying to immerse themselves in erotic and sexy feelings looking for? A vacuum cleaner which just costs 2.300€ – technically bargain compared to some of the sex dolls offered just across the aisle!” Their self-claimed USPs have long been debunked by product testers and scientists. But the Venus being a sex fair, I approached them with a real life kinkster problem: Can this vacuum clean wax, the most annoying part of wax play. It sadly cannot, but you can clean your windows it…

Overpriced Vacuum Cleaner – The Dream of Every Housewife on a Sex Trade Show

The second one way Weinfly, the Frankensteinian cuvée of white wine and energy drinks. Looking at the empty cans throughout the fair, energy drinks seemed to be the drink of choice, at least for the younger males. Since wineries are challenged by wine getting out of fashion and young people generally speaking prioritizing health and performance by cutting down on alcohol and drinking more energy drinks, they have to find new ways to sell they products. Apparently adding sugar (!), aromas (!!), guarana, taurin and coffin to a cheap white wine, carbonating (!!!) it and selling it for 6,66€ a liter is the way to go. I don’t want to be cultural pessimist but if that is the cure to the ailing wine industry, I would rather take the cup of hemlock instead of the healing potion.

Final Thoughs

The Venus visit was a deep dive into a sexual culture very different to the ones I know and participate in. Like all cultures, it follows a unique set of norms and rules. What looked to me like consent violations and objectifications are probably ok or even expected there, like the safe space we are exploring our darker and forbidden kink fantasies. Part of kink culture is learning where such things are appropriate and have to stay in these safe spaces. Hopefully the Venus visitors have the same knowledge when they leave the fair.

What surprised me was the “look and not touch” atmosphere. Most of the people were obviously horny but nobody was jerking off or having sex in the bathrooms. This might be the gay attitude talking, but I find it a bit unsatisfying to see what I can have without being able to execute. Again, very different culture which is very weird to me.

There must have been at least one Gay (?) Puppy at Venus this Year

The many different shows and photo opportunities in my opinion justify the ticket price for (horny) straight (guys). Compared to straight strip clubs let alone swinger or sauna clubs the ticket price is dead cheap with even cheaper beverage prices. The vendors showcase an interesting intersection of how to improve your intimacy, from mild impulses to wild rides. If you are vanilla and need inspiration or an overview what is possible, the Venus is a good place for getting an overview what sex life has to offer. Though for this group of people I would recommend coming early when the fair is not too busy. For gays and seasoned kinksters, it is interesting to see. It is a bit like taking the observer role some curious straight people do during Folsom Europe. But there is not so much to do and see that I would endorse a visit. If you are not there for the shows or to have a picture taken with your favorite cam girl, you can tour the Venus in about 1½ for which the ticket price is a bit steep.

For me personally, despite this culture shock, it was interesting to see now industry developments, talk to professionals and get to know kink toy makers who was not aware off yet. If I am in Germany next year, I will definitively try to get a press pass again and see what has changed and what trends will rock people getting their rocks off.

Part I: An Expo Review – Part II: The Cool – Part III: The (Non-)Trendy – Part IV: The Challenging