I review sex toys for sextoy.com. You can find the Fetish Fantasy Rawhide Switch and other Kink Toys on their site. Disclaimer: Although I am not paid for these reviews (unless you purchase something via an affiliate link), I am sent free toys in return for my honest opinion.
Go cut me a switch, girl.
At least some of my love of BDSM and kink was formed by an early exposure to Victorian erotica like The Pearl; the above phrase is an oft-repeated one in works from that era. Even though those switches are made from birch branches, it still left me with a fondness for anything referred to in that way. I guess I am a switch who loves switches.
Unfortunately, the Fetish Fantasy Rawhide Switch, from Pipedream Products, is not going to satisfy anyone’s fantasy; at least it won’t be doing it for very long. It is, unfortunately, a cheaply made novelty that is sure to break if it doesn’t arrive already on its way there. It will hurt if you hit someone with it but then it quickly breaks. I’m going to go into more detail below, but that is this toy in a nutshell. You can undoubtedly find better.
I actually received two of these before writing this review. I had some shipping problems with my order, and one of the problems was that both times I was sent this toy it was shipped bent in half in a box that was too small. Shellie from sextoy.com customer service did a wonderful job of sorting out the confusion and trying to make me happy and I know she is talking to the vendor in question to improve their shipping methods for toys like this. In the end though I had to tell her not to replace it a third time: Although a properly shipped toy might have lasted longer, when I gave this toy a closer look I decided it was totally unsalvageable.
The first switch I received arrived intact and I was able to take a few test swings at a fellow Dominant who I am mentoring. We thought this thing would have a lot of fun potential at first. But then while swinging it at the air a few more times the handle broke. It bent drastically to the side and exposed a sharp, flexible plastic rod that is at the core of this toy. As I said above, I was quickly shipped a replacement, but this one arrived with the rod already pushing its way out of the handle.
I had managed to briefly convince myself that this was made of leather rawhide scraps coated in plastic for color or added sting. But of course a real rawhide strip would not need a plastic core to maintain stiffness. On close look it was clear the toy is made of some kind of purple plastic foam, wrapped inefficiently around the flexible core. Even if this wasn’t advertised as a ‘rawhide’ toy, this switch would still not be viable because the foam is just much too thin. In addition to the broken handle, the covering is already chipping off in some places.
Holding this toy a bit gingerly, lest the plastic rod impale my hand unexpectedly, I did give it a little try during a recent scene with my pet. It was quite stingy as one would expect and left some nice red stripes on her butt. But after the scene I noticed the end had come off entirely.
The Fetish Fantasy Rawhide Switch is a bad toy. You shouldn’t buy it. Sextoy.com has a wide variety of impact toys, so save your budget for something that will last more than a single session.
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Kit O’Connell’s short story, “Lifting The Veil” will be published March 1 in This Is The Way The World Ends, a collection of apocalyptic erotica from Freaky Fountain Press.
“Lifting the Veil” is a story of sex, experimental drugs, and the end of the world. The anthology will be available in both print on demand and ebook formats. Click here for more information and to learn how you could win a free copy of the ebook.
