Posted by red on June 22nd, 2009 in E-stim, Kinky Gear, Review

One of the more frustrating things about electrosex is the fact that accessories that are made specifically for e-stim can be expensive, and as sex toys go, they’re often not the shape of your dreams. For example, the Zeus electrosex torpedo plugs are great and all, but I’m not such a fan of the shape when it’s the large one – and the small one is just a tad too small. What’s a girl to do?

Well, fortunately the devious minds at Extreme Restraints have some up with a ingenious kit that will take any one of your standard sex toys and adapt it to take on and electrical current.

In A Nutshell: The “Electrify-It Kit” brings together the necessary adapter, lead wires and metallic sticky tape to turn your favorite toy into the electrified toy of your dreams – just add a power box and your favorite sex toy!

What’s Not So Awesome? Because this method of electrifying is just a matter of applying the copper tape to a toy, the whole system suffers from various issues. The attachment of the alligator clamps to the metallic take is awkward and cumbersome, the tape can be difficult to apply smoothly, and can also come free. The kit is also very expensive, and I daresay: overpriced.

Rating:

This kit basically includes alligator clamps (as in, the ones reviewed here), the adapter necessary to attach them to a TENS unit or Zeus (or Rimba) Box, and some sticky backed conductive copper tape. As per my review of the alligator clamps, they have a jack that is 3.5mm in diameter, so they will work “fresh out of the box” with some E-stim units, but will require an adapter to fit the 2.5mm jack seen on TENS units and some power boxes. It’s nice, in general, to have this adapter and these alligator clamps, as an e-stim kit benefits from both very versatile and adaptable items. The adapter can be used with any accessory that requires such a conversion, and the alligator clamps can be used to directly electrify many metallic objects, limited only be their jaw size.

The real meat to this kit is the conductive copper tape, which is sticky back and can be applied to any hard sex toy or accessory. It can be used with softer toys, like rubber and silicone, but it will be very difficult to apply so that it stays put over time, and even lies flat and wrinkle free to begin with. On a harder toy that features very soft sloping textures, the tape can be applied so that it lies very flat and wrinkle free, and if allowed to really “cure” before being used, the tape will stay put through many uses.

If making a bipolar toy – something I have been calling “plug and play” – you need to make sure that the alligator clamps will be attaching to two distinct strips of copper. Remember, electricity takes the path of least resistance, and if you clamps both alligator clamps to the same strip of copper tape, the current will simply flow through the copper tape. But, if the alligator clamps are attached to separate pieces of tape, the electrical circuit must be completed (by skin contact), resulting in a jolt. The copper tape can be applied in any way that is desired, remembering that anywhere the copper contacts more copper the current will be spread out. The easiest way of doing this is taking a dildo and running a line of tape up either side of the toy – but if you wanted to get fancy, smaller pieces of tape could be used to cover broader areas around the vaginal entrance portion of the toy (or be placed into intricate designs…whatever!). The only thing to make sure of is that the copper tape areas that are acting as separate poles cannot touch, and that you need to create a place that the alligator clamps can pinch onto securely. If you’re looking to make something a bit more streamlined and a tad less bulky than the alligator clamps, any metalized connection spot from any lead wire can be taped (with electrical tape) so that it’s fixed up against the copper conductive tape. I find that the “snap adapters” that came with the “Electrosex Penis Bands” can be made to lie very flat and make a great option if being streamlined is important.

The “Electrify-It Kit” can also be used to create unipolar toys. Metal toys can be made conductive – but unipolar – by attaching a small piece of copper tape to a convenient place on the toy and than clipping off the alligator clamp to the copper tape. Similarly, a non metallic toy can be made into a unipolar toy by simply applying a strip (or design) of copper tape that is continuous and will only clip off to one alligator clamps. In any case of unipolar electrical toy, the circuit must be completed by applying some other unipolar accessory – anything from a tens pad to a whole other unipolar toy. The world, after all, is your oyster!

Unfortunately, I do find this kit to be inflated in price. Conductive copper tape can be purchased from better gardening stores as “Slug it” – slug repellent tape – and is generally less than $10 a roll. Just add alligator clamps and the proper adapter, and you’ve got a cheaper version of this kit, although perhaps with lower quality (thickness) of copper tape. Also unfortunately, this way of electrifying an accessory is fun and allows for a lot of versatility, but the tape will not stay put forever – especially when used with conductive lube – and will start to peel free after just a handful of uses. If you didn’t mind making something more permanent, I would recommend super gluing the ends of the tape to the toy.