Updated 14/08/15
Last month I had the opportunity to review my first ever solid metal electrosex butt plug, courtesy of my new friends at E-Stim, and now this month my old friends over at ElectraStim have provided me with one of their metal plugs so I can do a little comparison. As it happens both plugs are rather conveniently almost identical in size, which should make for nice straight forward assessment of their other attributes, and in all other respects the two designs couldn't be more different.
Last month I had the opportunity to review my first ever solid metal electrosex butt plug, courtesy of my new friends at E-Stim, and now this month my old friends over at ElectraStim have provided me with one of their metal plugs so I can do a little comparison. As it happens both plugs are rather conveniently almost identical in size, which should make for nice straight forward assessment of their other attributes, and in all other respects the two designs couldn't be more different.
As always, catch the rest below.
Compared to its competitors the Intruder is easily the more glamorous product. Made from a highly polished piece of solid aluminium, and sculpted with graceful sweeping curves it's clearly a piece of design. There's nothing utilitarian about it; it wants to be looked at, and it looks expensive. It's a complete contrast to the rough industrial look of the Torpedo, and if you like your toys to be pretty then you have your winner.
The Intruder is one of a range of three similarly-shaped plugs by ElectraStim, and it happens to be the smallest, but don't let that fool you - it's no beginner's toy. It measures in at 6 1/4" in circumference, with a insertable length of 4 1/2", making it just slightly longer than the Torpedo.
The construction of the plug isn't immediately apparent just from looking at the product photo, but it's made from three individual pieces. Running vertically down the middle is a central strip of clear acrylic which sits sandwiched between two outer metal halves, all held together presumably by a strong adhesive. It's a very interesting design because the acrylic section isolates the conductive metal from left to right, rather than from top to bottom as the plastic neck did in the Torpedo. It also adds to the uniqueness of the Intruder's look, giving that classic appearance of metal fused with glass. Because it's such a shiny finish to the metal you have to be careful if you wish to keep it pristine, as aluminium is a softer metal and prone to scratching. In total the combined materials give the plug a weight of 385g, which is less than the Torpedo but still quite significant.
Functionally the Intruder is designed as a bi-polar electrode, with the two points of charge coming from the two opposite sides of the plug, and with the acrylic divider acting as an insulator to ensure the current flows through the body. This means that just like the Torpedo or the Sirius the Intruder can be used by itself, without the need for ElectraLoops or electro-conductive pads to complete the circuit.
When it comes to using the Intruder it's advisable to opt for a warm-up toy first, just due to the sheer size of it, but if you're a renegade like me then it is possible to insert the plug by itself if you have the patience and experience for it. It's actually easier to do this with the Intruder than with the Torpedo, because it's far less blunt and has a nice tapered tip to ease it into you. As soon as you're ready to handle the full girth of the plug it slips inside pretty comfortably, aided by the high sheen of the surface working in tandem with a good waterbased lube. Inside the body the Intruder feels expectedly filling for a plug of its size, pushing closely up against the prostate, and all the while pulling back down against the sphincter with its weight. It holds quite securely in place, with the slim base nestled comfortably between the buttocks, and while you're constantly aware of the mass of the thing being there, there's no chance of it unexpectedly slipping out. As with any metal toy you'll find that at room temperature it feels cool to the touch, and once inside it gives a soothing chill initially as it begins to draw heat from the body to warm itself. This is an attribute that I always enjoy playing around with, and varying the temperature of metal plugs prior to insertion. Like with the Torpedo the Intruder makes for a really nice toy just by itself, and it's fun to walk around wearing even before you think about hooking it up to the powerpack.
The Intruder is designed to be used in combination with a purpose-made electrosex power unit, but due to the size and surface area of this particular plug you have to be careful to pick an appropriate unit. As it happens that rules out my trusty Flick Duo as it just doesn't have the power for the job, so in an unusual turn I'm going to be reviewing this ElectraStim plug with the aid of the E-Stim powerpack from a few weeks ago. Unfortunately that means missing out on all the fun pre-programmed patterns in the Flick Duo, but it should give a more direct comparison of the Intruder against the Torpedo. One thing to note though is that different companies use different connectors for their products. The Intruder takes 2mm connectors which are incompatible with the 4mm cable that came with the Torpedo, but thankfully the E-Stim Micro sound came with a 2mm cable which fits nicely. If you don't want to mix equipment from different brands then ElectraStim recommend their SensaVox unit for use with this plug, but that'll set you back £300 as it's a serious piece of kit.
Once everything is connected and fired up it's surprising how different the Intruder actually feels to the Torpedo. I was expecting there to be a little variance, but not to this degree, and it all comes down to moving the position of the plastic insulator. At first the sensation you get from the Intruder as you increase the dial is not a lot. I have a habit of starting on the "constant" setting, which delivers the faintest hint of a tingle until suddenly you go too high and there's a sharp jolt of pain. I found I had more luck playing around with the pulse setting, as that intermittent flash of power made it much easier to identify what was being felt, but still it surprised me just how much fine tuning I had to do before I started to feel something I liked. Unlike the straightforwardness of the Torpedo it proved to be a delicate balancing act of adjusting the intensity and pulse frequency until I hit a pleasurable point. With that sweet spot identified the sensation was that of a soft throbbing around the prostate, and it felt fairly nice but I really wasn't blown away. No matter how much I tinkered that was the best I could get, and it wasn't for lack of power, it was just that too much power seemed to translate into discomfort. Somehow it seemed to miss that excited energetic tingly feeling that the Torpedo brought me, and that I also got from the Sirius. Whereas the Torpedo had me feeling aroused as soon as I began to turn up the dial, the Intruder left me altogether limp even after tweaking it to the perfect setting.
One thing I learnt from playing around with the plug is that the orientation it has inside the body has an impact on its performance. Having the two metal halves facing forwards and backwards, rather than left and right tends to elicit more of a result from the plug. In this configuration the flow of electricity helps to contract the muscles, causing the plug to move around a bit and be pulled deeper into the body. This is an interesting experience, and the plug did push against the prostate somewhat as it moves, but honestly I still didn't find the sensations to be anything special.
It's not often that something really takes me by surprise when I'm reviewing a toy, but I really wasn't expecting the Intruder to behave like this. I was expecting it to feel largely similar to the Torpedo, and perhaps even slightly better because of the layout, but instead it just fell flat for me. This is the interesting thing about doing a comparison review, because perhaps I would have felt differently about it if I hadn't used the Torpedo before, but even then I think my experiences with the wonderful Sirius prostate massager would have had an impact on my assessment.
So where does this all leave us with the Intruder? Well it's a lovely looking toy, it's a well made toy, and it's a very pleasurable toy to wear by itself, but as an electrosex toy I find it to be a bit of a flop. It's more form than it is function, and put next to the Torpedo there's one toy that looks amazing, and one that feels amazing. At the end of the day I know the one that I'd pick. It's taken me a while to get to this point after an initial hiccup using the wrong powerpack and two edits later, but sadly I'm still not at a point where I'd be recommending this plug.
Once everything is connected and fired up it's surprising how different the Intruder actually feels to the Torpedo. I was expecting there to be a little variance, but not to this degree, and it all comes down to moving the position of the plastic insulator. At first the sensation you get from the Intruder as you increase the dial is not a lot. I have a habit of starting on the "constant" setting, which delivers the faintest hint of a tingle until suddenly you go too high and there's a sharp jolt of pain. I found I had more luck playing around with the pulse setting, as that intermittent flash of power made it much easier to identify what was being felt, but still it surprised me just how much fine tuning I had to do before I started to feel something I liked. Unlike the straightforwardness of the Torpedo it proved to be a delicate balancing act of adjusting the intensity and pulse frequency until I hit a pleasurable point. With that sweet spot identified the sensation was that of a soft throbbing around the prostate, and it felt fairly nice but I really wasn't blown away. No matter how much I tinkered that was the best I could get, and it wasn't for lack of power, it was just that too much power seemed to translate into discomfort. Somehow it seemed to miss that excited energetic tingly feeling that the Torpedo brought me, and that I also got from the Sirius. Whereas the Torpedo had me feeling aroused as soon as I began to turn up the dial, the Intruder left me altogether limp even after tweaking it to the perfect setting.
One thing I learnt from playing around with the plug is that the orientation it has inside the body has an impact on its performance. Having the two metal halves facing forwards and backwards, rather than left and right tends to elicit more of a result from the plug. In this configuration the flow of electricity helps to contract the muscles, causing the plug to move around a bit and be pulled deeper into the body. This is an interesting experience, and the plug did push against the prostate somewhat as it moves, but honestly I still didn't find the sensations to be anything special.
It's not often that something really takes me by surprise when I'm reviewing a toy, but I really wasn't expecting the Intruder to behave like this. I was expecting it to feel largely similar to the Torpedo, and perhaps even slightly better because of the layout, but instead it just fell flat for me. This is the interesting thing about doing a comparison review, because perhaps I would have felt differently about it if I hadn't used the Torpedo before, but even then I think my experiences with the wonderful Sirius prostate massager would have had an impact on my assessment.
So where does this all leave us with the Intruder? Well it's a lovely looking toy, it's a well made toy, and it's a very pleasurable toy to wear by itself, but as an electrosex toy I find it to be a bit of a flop. It's more form than it is function, and put next to the Torpedo there's one toy that looks amazing, and one that feels amazing. At the end of the day I know the one that I'd pick. It's taken me a while to get to this point after an initial hiccup using the wrong powerpack and two edits later, but sadly I'm still not at a point where I'd be recommending this plug.
I have to thank Hella and Andy from ElectraStim for generously sending the Intruder to me to review, even if I couldn't give it the glowing endorsement I would have liked. It is a top-notch British company and I'd recommend checking out their Silicone Noir range any day.
If you're still interested in the Intruder then it's available from Lovehoney.