Once upon a time, I bought a "vibrating love ring" from a sex toy party. Despite my love for this smelly, jelly, double-bullet, bunny tickler in the front and rear apparatus, it died shortly after I wrote my second sex toy review ever. My search for a suitable replacement was unfruitful.

"Until now!" I said to myself as I raised Stormy's Double Trouble Couples Enhancer (TM) wireless vibrating cock ring from its somewhat flimsy, easily recyclable cardboard box. The photograph of Stormy in black lingerie seemed to approve of the neighboring photograph of the product itself, which, from this angle of the photo, looked kind of like a bug-eyed parakeet. No joke. I faltered a little in my enthusiasm, but perked right back up again. So it looked weird. It would still deliver, right? It said, right there on the back of the box, "Pure gold for pure pleasure!"

Pure pleasure! No kidding!

"Couples Enhancer?" My roommate, peeking over my shoulder to inspect my new loot, sounded incredulous. "Is it supposed to enhance couples, or what?"

I ignored her concerns that grammar ambiguity could possibly take away from my personal (and couple's) pleasure and opened up the two little plastic bags that contained the components of the Double Trouble.

Bag No. 1 contained the clear TPE ring, complete with the hungry bird beak-like clit stimulator and eye sockets to put the bullet vibe in. Bag No. 2 contained the wireless ABS bullet with "gold plating" along with 6 watch batteries. The watch batteries were divided into two columns of 3 batteries which seemed to be glued together. I was awed by Cal Exotics' consideration for people who may experience difficulty counting to three, or maybe just people fumbling around for batteries in the dark. It does make loading the batteries much easier. I just pop in a column of watch batteries and the bullet's ready to go.

One push of the little black button on the end of the gold bullet and a decent vibration ripples through the vibe. Another push and it stops mid-buzz. Ah, the joys of a one-speed bullet! To my delight, it was relatively quiet, too!

My boyfriend wasn't back yet, but I figured I could do a test run of the ring's clit stimulating capabilities by myself. I grabbed a little lube (either water-based or silicone is OK) to ease the friction so I could slide the bullet into its loop, then did my best to go to town. The clit stimulator isn't phenomenal, but it puts forth a decent bit of effort and about 80% of the bullet's power makes it through to the clit. Since the stimulator is a bit rigid, it does a good job of not flopping around on your clit. Bonus! Also, the upper and lower bumps of the stimulator, which I lovingly refer to as "the beak", are quite adept at targeting the clit.

So I was enjoying using this cock ring solo, and was well on my way to enjoying it IMMENSELY, when, not ten minutes into my little session, the bullet puttered to a crawling 40% of its original power. Confused, I turned the bullet off, took the batteries out, waited a little bit, put the batteries back in, and turned the bullet on again. No improvement. I had to conclude that either the batteries included were wimpy or the vibe was too much of a power hog. Possibly both. I was a little surprised, though. Even the disposable vibrating rings sold in drugstores will live for 20-30 minutes before battery death hits them.

Trying this out with my boyfriend produced similar results. We lubed things up and slid the ring down to the base of his shaft, above the testicles, as he does not enjoy excess handling of his balls. The (fresh) batteries barely lived long enough for a quickie. Despite technical problems, it still felt great when he angled to hit my G-spot while the bullet buzzed on my clit. We didn't notice any dramatic difference in terms of a prolonged erection. However, an erection that outlasted a bullet would have been a bit of a killjoy. For me, anyway.

The bullet claims to be waterproof, and seems to be splash-proof at the very least. Cleaning it is easy enough, as a quick soap and warm water regimen will do. The TPE ring has a tendency to attract lint and dust as it is a bit sticky. There is no surefire way to prevent it from attracting dust, so I just give it a good rinse before each use. The TPE has a bit of odor to it, but it is not overwhelming and disperses over time.

Stormy's Double Trouble isn't a bad cock ring. So far we haven't experienced problems with it being too tight or losing elasticity. Aside from the short-lived wireless bullet, which was admittedly the main draw of this product in the first place, the ring itself performs well. We'll probably use it with a bullet wired to a power pack next time, although that will take away from its somewhat disturbing bug-eyed parakeet look.