Minivibe Spring - traditional vibrator by Fun Factory - review by Jul!a

This rechargeable vibe is pretty much a whole bowl of awesomesauce. It's silicone, it's powerful, it's rechargeable, it comes in more than one color, and it's got these adorable little flowers on it. You can use it to tease just about any opening as well as other erogenous zones such as the nipples or testicles. The Spring is best used as a solo female toy, but there's no reason you couldn't even toss this one into partner play.

If you prefer longer or girthier toys for insertion, the Mini Spring will leave you wanting, but otherwise this is a great vibe for both those who are new to the toy world as well as more seasoned toy users.

The Spring is made of a plush, velvety silicone. This means that it's non porous, and free of phthalates and all that other junk. It's very smooth with the exception of some small flowers embossed into the silicone. There's a slight drag to it when you run your finger across it. Not enough to catch and hold your fingers, but just enough that your finger won't just glide right over the toy. Your favorite water based lube will take away any discomfort you might have experienced by using the Spring.

Being made of silicone makes the Spring quite a bit of a lint magnet, so keep that in mind.

The Spring looks like a bigger version of Fun Factory's fly micro vibe. It has the same flowers and light curvature, which makes it more interesting than a slimline anything, but it's Fun Factory, and I have yet to see anything really boring come from them. The whole toy is about 5 1/2" long with about 4" being insertable. The shaft is made of silicone and has a slight twist to it. The motor spans most of the length of the toy, leaving the top 3/4" or so just silicone. This tip is very soft and squishy and doesn't transmit vibrations the best at lower levels, but at higher levels the only thing you'll have to worry about is whether or not you can get enough pressure (if you're using it clitorally) for your liking.

The flowers add not only something cute to look at, but depending on your level of sensitivities can really add to the sensations you're already feeling. Some may find the flowers work best on the clit, while others are going to love how they feel vaginally.

With a diameter just over an inch or so, this is going to be plenty filling for most. The length and general straightness of the design isn't the best for G-spotting, but if you work at it and don't have a really deep G-spot, you should be able to reach it.

The huge plus side to this mini vibe is that it's going to be much easier to hide. I might not just toss it in your purse because it likes to attract things, but if you put it in a small plastic baggie first, you could tuck this little guy away just about anywhere.

The overview on the Spring says there are 4 speeds, but I count 8 distinctly different strengths of vibration. They go from barely being able to be felt to making your hand numb and are of the lower pitched deep rumbly variety and travel very well through the entire shaft of the toy.

To turn the Spring on, press and hold the + sign for just a few seconds. On the lowest setting it's definitely audible and is going to be too gentle for most to get any real pleasure from. On the highest it's definitely going to be heard through blankets and a closed door, so make sure you turn up whatever ambient noise of your choosing before going at it. I would compare the noise to having someone mow the lawn right outside your window. It's the same noise level, only in your hand rather than outside.

Once you've gone all the way as high as the steady vibrations go, you can press and hold the + sign again to reach 3 different oscillating settings. The first is even pulses between the lowest and the highest vibration. Pressing the + sign again gets you a more urgent feeling pulsing. The space between the lowest and highest setting is a lot shorter. The next setting is a rapid pulsing of just the high setting. It almost feels as though the vibrator is skipping. Hitting the + sign again just cycles you back through the oscillating settings.

To get back to steady vibrations simple press the - sign once. Keep pressing or hold it down to scale back down through all the steady settings and turn the toy off.

Unfortunately there is no designated 'emergency off' switch, but holding down the minus sign does turn the toy off relatively quickly.

The Spring charges through a click and charge system. The base of the toy is magnetic and 'clips' to the charger that you plug into the wall. When the end of the charger, a round circle with 2 small metal nubs, is attached to the base of the Spring, the back of the charger plate turns red. When the Spring is done charging the light turns off. This technology is still pretty new, so if you bump it slightly you can interrupt the connection and the light turns off, leading you to think that your toy is charging when it's really not, so just make sure to charge on a level surface.

Because this rechargeable toy has no battery compartment or other little holes for things to plug into, it's completely waterproof. I've used it in the shower with no problem and when I dropped it (oops) onto the shower floor and into a few inches of water (we have some drain problems that are getting fixed soon) I left it there to test it for myself, and the Spring wasn't even phased.

Being made of silicone makes care and maintenance pretty easy. Silicone isn't fussy and the complete waterproofness of the Spring means you can completely submerge it to clean it with warm water and antibacterial soap. You can also wipe it down with a 10% bleach solution, a toy wipe, or spray it with your favorite toy cleaner.

Sometimes silicone can start to hold smells sometimes. If this happens just clean it thoroughly and leave it out in an open area for a while.

The only downside to silicone is that it tends to pick up just about everything. Lint, hair, dirt, and just about any other random particle it can find, and it holds it. When you dry your Spring off you can use a coffee filter, shammy cloth, or I've found old (clean) towels to work well too. The old towels have usually been washed enough time that they don't shed lots of fuzzies. Because of the lint magnet properties, you should definitely keep the Spring in something like a ziploc bag or toy pouch, or even in the original box.

You should stay away from silicone based lubes. The same properties that make that silicone stay in liquid form could do the same thing to your brand new toy, and that would be horrible. You can safely use water or oil based lubes.

The packaging was awesome. It's not discreet as far as being able to tell whether or not it's a sex toy, but it is nice enough to give as a gift. The outside of the box has a window that lets you see your Spring, and the front of the box opens up like a book and gives you a breakdown in 4 different languages how to work your toy. Inside the box is, well, the Spring, as well as a few small pamphlets and a sample of lube. One of the pamphlets is a display of all the fun and exciting newer toys Fun Factory carries. The other pamphlet is filled with very detailed instructions on how to charge, use, and clean your Spring and comes in 6 different languages.

The Spring lacks anything resembling a flared base, so while it's ok to use it on the anal opening, don't actually penetrate anally with this toy. While you may want to tell everybody about your awesome new toy, you don't want to do it by telling people why you were in the ER last night. If you do any anal teasing you should clean the toy before returning to the front side, just to be safe.

I was really surprised with this toy. First I was really impressed at the fact that it was rechargeable. I've never owned a rechargeable toy before, so charging it the first time was really neat for me, but I'm a nerd, and I digress.

The Spring is not only a lot stronger than I thought it would be, it's also noisier than I had hoped it would be. The noise level is not a deterrent for me however, it just means that I'm watching the weather channel at an absurdly loud level.

I think that between the huge variation in vibrations as well as the awesome texture, that the only people who wouldn't like the Spring would be people who like really long or girthy toys. There's something here for everyone and the only real downside is the price, but the fact that the Spring is really body safe and rechargeable makes it totally worth the money.