The rechargeable nature of this toy is what first drew my girlfriend and me to it. Fun Factory has built the battery right into the toy, and it charges by snapping the magnetic dipole to the "Fun Factory" logo on the back of the handle. Oddly enough, though, this arrived without any actual way to plug it into a wall. The cable within the box ends in a USB port, so it can be plugged into a computer. If this doesn't work for you, there is a USB-to-wall-jack converter available for purchase if you so choose (or you may have one that came with another device, as we did). From what I've seen, it looks like it used to come with a standard power jack, but Fun Factory seems to have moved on from archaic wall plug-ins. Either way, though this means that you don't have to deal with disposable batteries, especially those pesky watch batteries, which helps both the environment and your wallet. Well, once you get past the initial price tag, that is. It takes no more than a couple of hours to charge, but I have yet to figure out a way to tell when it has been fully charged. Again, looking into older Fun Factory models (namely our Stronic Eins, which we got a year before this), it seems that the power cord used to have a light on it for this sort of purpose and now the light simply indicates whether it is connected or not (it always stays red). There is a warning in the booklet that comes with it not to charge it more than eight hours straight.

The toy itself doesn't particularly exceed the expectations of its price tag, but it does meet them. The measurements can be found on the product page, but if you have never tried a textured toy, be warned that this feels bigger than the measurements suggest. The shaft is pure silicone, easily cleaned with toy cleanser or soap and water. The ridges do make it a little bit trickier than something smooth, but it's by no means difficult to keep sterile. It is absolutely a lint magnet, however, so washing both before and after use is a necessary evil. We store ours in the box that it came in, which is quite nice packaging, but obviously it could be kept in a pouch or toy box.

There are three controls, an asterisk, a plus and a minus button. To turn the toy on, the asterisk button should be held. It also allows the user to rotate through the patterned functions. The plus and minus buttons move one through speeds, and the minus button turns the toy off. There are five speeds of steady vibration, as well as four patterns that the toy can be made to cycle through. Even the fastest is still quite quiet, and the vibrations themselves are not overly intense. The best part is that there's absolutely nothing buzzy about this toy - it's low and rumbly all the way. The handle makes it very easy to use and switch through the functions, though until you get used to which speed goes where, it is possible to accidentally turn it off (and it's a bit annoying to turn back on).