Cute.

That's the first word that describes the Adzumi Acorn from Hentai Toys. Arriving in a small cardboard box, it's decorated with a pretty looking anime girl and a cheerful list of features including the claim that the acorn 'wants to go home to you' and 'will make you smile.'

The Adzumi Acorn is a fist-sized masturbation sleeve made from Cyberskin. It doesn't look much like an acorn - more like a rubbery, pink hand grenade with vaginal lips at the bottom. But it's firm and fleshy and - here's that word again - cute as soon as you take it out of the packet.

The Acorn boasts an 's-shaped tunnel' to enhance pleasure, but it's actually the firmness you'll notice first. Unlike a lot of sleeves and toys, the Acorn is surprisingly firm and hard. It almost feels like it has something giving it some rigidity inside.

As with all Cyberskin products, you can only use water-based lube with the Adzumi acorn. Anything else will degrade the plastic. Also, Cyberskin isn't the best material to keep sterilized - but I doubt many men will be sharing their Acorns with others! The care instructions are pretty explicit, recommending using 'renew' on the Cyberskin to keep it soft and non-sticky (although you can just use corn starch, which works just as well.)

The Acorn itself is only about five inches long, which means most men will 'pop' out of the end on the inside stroke - a fault common with many masturbation sleeves. The Acorn also promises that it's easy to grasp, with the knobbly exterior. However, it's quite slippery with even the slightest bit of lube.

Conversely, the interior of the sleeve seems to 'drink' lube, and it is necessary to keep adding more to ensure that friction doesn't turn into rug burn.

I had Stormy and Randy Spears in the DVD player when I gave the Acorn it's initial run - and their onscreen antics soon had me harder than a week-old baguette.

I used KY to lube up the Acorn, spreading the lube on the inside with my fingers (and noticing how tightly the Acorn gripped them) before slathering my shaft with jelly. Then there came the initial struggle to get my cock into this tiny little toy!

Actually, it wasn't as bad as all that - I've tried some toys which make penetration harder than squeezing lube back into the tube! The Acorn 'gave it up' pretty easily and then - WOW.

The initial sensation was lovely - the 's-shaped' tunnel was tight and extremely stimulating, making the whole thing feel delicious. Unfortunately, as always happens, I 'popped' out of the end of the sleeve, but at least the journey there had been pleasurable!

Initially, I was delighted with the Acorn, but I did find two problems. Firstly, the lube soon made it incredibly difficult to grip. That, in turn, exacerbated the second problem - getting the right 'rhythm.'

The Acorn is the slut of masturbation sleeves. It grips you hard and right and doesn't let up. Unlike the Fleshlight, which you can adjust depending on your mood, the Acorn is very tight and very stimulating and although that was great at first, as I continued wanking to Randy Spear's onscreen antics (he was doing Amber Rayne with trademark skill) I found it all a bit desensitizing. With the added handicap of not being able to control the strokes as precisely as I'd like, I found it quite difficult to keep the required rhythm going.

Eventually, of course, I succeeded (I'm nothing if not determined.) However, busting my nut in this little Acorn was a little disappointing as I actually 'spurted' out the hole at the end, instead of into a nice, tight orifice like we men are programmed to prefer.

Afterward, I felt a little sore from the intense friction, but that soon faded. Washing the Acorn was a breeze - I rinsed it with soap under the tap and then patted it dry and dusted it with my wife's talc (corn starch) until it felt squishy, soft and as good as new.

My further attempts to use this cute lil' acorn, have been both illuminating and frustrating...

With a bit of practice - and after making sure I didn't smear lube everywhere, I penetrated this plump plastic pucker and happily started thrusting away with considerably more success than last time. As long as you keep the grooved sides free of lube, it's very easy to grip and keep hold of.

But I found the interior texture to simply be too intense... Slipping a finger inside, I discovered that the interior sleeve is textured with tiny bumps, almost like the faux-leather of a car's dashboard. Even with plenty of lube, I found it simply too intense for me and I just simply couldn't fuck it comfortably...

But that's me - I'm pretty sensitive. I imagine that men who have trouble coming, or want a really stimulating product, might find that intensity rewarding.

All in all, it increased my appreciation of the Adzumi Acorn, but reinforced my impression that it 'wasn't for me.'