I'd like to make a confession- out of all the tacky, bendy toys out there.. I've never had one before. I'd heard mixed things about bendy toys, some love them and some hate them.. so I was unsure of what to expect.

I'm glad to say that when I got this toy, my expectations soared.

The Pure Bendie 10 function comes in Cal Exotics' standard clear, white, and pink packaging. Inside, there's a tray that supports the toy, and a sheet of the most useless instructions in the world- the type of battery pack that this uses is not even listed- the instructions are useless in a handful of different languages, though.

Getting batteries in and out of the toy is a bit of an adventure- it has a twist-lock type of cap, and a removable battery bay that takes three AAA batteries. The spaces for the batteries are clearly labeled so you know how to insert them, and which way the battery bay goes back into the toy. I recommend grabbing some sort of hard wedge and inserting and removing batteries a few times, though, before leaving them in- the battery springs are very, very strong when you first get the toy, to the point of making battery insertion and removal difficult. I also had a bit of a problem with the spring on mine making proper contact with the battery bay. This is easily solved by giving the spring a good tug, so it presses down more against the batteries.

After this whole ordeal, the only thing I could think was "This damned thing better be amazing" and gladly... it was. There are two buttons- one is an on/off button, and the other cycles through the functions. If you turn it on using the on/off button, it will go back to the function you used with the toy previously. If you turn it on using the function button (this turns it on too, not sure why) it will cycle forward one function.

The functions included on this vibrator run the gamut- three levels of steady vibration, three levels of pulsation, and three of escalation, then there's a lovely throbbing pattern that makes ten. There is not much variation in overall strength between the levels of steady vibration, and all the functions are pretty intense- a medium high level of vibration, with a matching medium-high pitch. There are yellow LEDs on the bottom of the toy near the buttons- which, by the way, are unmarked, so you have to figure out which is which via trial and error- that flash to the 'beat' of whatever function you're on. This toy is genuinely quiet enough to lose if you weren't careful, which amazes me for the strength, so it's cool that it has LEDs.

The packaging claims this toy is waterproof, and the seal does have an o-ring, but I did not test this and here is why- the outer layer of soft PureSkin material is a sleeve, and it is only attached at the head. Water could get in here and it would be impossible to dry it out all the way. Plus, twist-lock o-rings never seem to be as sturdy- and I do not want to break the toy. I don't recommend using this in any extremely wet environment unless you're willing to obsessively dry it, pry at the sleeve to make sure there's no water, etc.

Since this is Pureskin, some extra care is required- only water based lube can be used with this toy, and you should clean it with soap and water, with care not to get the inside of the sleeve wet, with toy cleaner, or toy wipes- after the toy has dried, use cornstarch and lightly dust it over the toy to preserve the velvety feel of the material. Keep it stored away from other materials as well- I use a plastic ziploc bag and it's alright.

-Continued in the Experience section-

Now, obviously this toy is a bit high maintenance. However.. once I felt the toy, the ridges, the soft detailing on the toy that felt lovely to my fingers.. and once I bent the toy, feeling a good level of resistance.. I knew it was worth it all. It can go about 60 degrees in any direction, 90 if you push it, and stays where you put it very well.
With it angled upward slightly, I decided to finally see if all the fuss was worth it.

It is. Every second of it is worth it. This toy feels outstanding. Not quite realistic, but it's soft, ridged, and just... amazing. The vibrations are right in the tip of the toy, and the throbby pulse level was enough to really send me over the edge. The bend stays in decently most of the time- if I squeezed it inside, though, it did straighten out a bit.

I love this toy.. it's something I'll definitely be using with a partner, because it feels great, but it's soft enough that it'd be hard for them to bruise me or anything with it. It's also very, very filling. Cleaning it afterwards was a little hard, since without cornstarch the material has a tackiness to it, but I'm used to caring for realistic materials, so I was able to get it back to that lovely, silky matte finish again- I keep some cornstarch downstairs so I'm not running to the kitchen between sessions.

If you're a fan of realistic materials, I recommend this toy. It is a bit of fuss to take care of it, and it's not as waterproof as it claims, but it is very, very good where it counts- and that's what mostly matters to me.