Fetish Fantasy rope cuff set - cuffs by Pipedream - review by Jul!a

This set is definitely something more geared to beginners. That's not to say that somebody with a lot of restraining experience won't be able to find a use for it in their collection, but there's not much here that's going to excite a seasoned player.

The packaging, like most of the other Fetish Fantasy Series items, isn't discreet at all. There's a photo of the model demonstrating everything in various positions, a list of what's included in the box, and a blurby thing on the back panel. While not discreet at all, it's also not tacky, or at least not as tacky as it could be.

Inside the box you'll find a few different things, all wrapped in very loud plastic bags. The two ropes come in one bag, and are pretty easy to figure out. The only real difference between the two ropes is length. The short one comes in at about 20" in length, and seems to be meant for restraining the wrists. The longer rope is about 48" long and seems to be meant for restraining the legs. Both ropes have two sides to them they're secured in the center with some white tape. Tape seems to be the wrong word. If you were wiring electrical stuff, it would be shrink tubing, so that's what I'll call it here. On each end is a piece of white plastic that allows you to adjust the rope and where it's going around. You have the option of restraining either with one loop of rope or with two. I went with two just to have some extra surface area, although I still had the ropes digging in uncomfortably if too much pulling happened. You'll be able to fit anybody's wrists or ankles in these restraints with no problems whatsoever. The cotton lengths of the ropes are also soft to the touch, although they've got some bite to them if you're not careful.

You also receive a beginner's ball gag, and by beginner's, I mean not a fantastic ball gag. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody unless they just wanted to try out a ball gag and see if the idea was for them. The ball itself is made of rubber and looks, smells, and feels exactly like the clear bouncy balls I used to collect when I was younger. This particular ball doesn't bounce quite as well as my original bouncy balls, but it's fairly adequate for that. The ball itself is about 5 1/2" around, and if you have a smaller mouth like I do, it's going to get pretty uncomfortable pretty fast. The nylon cord that runs through the center of the ball is set up much like the ropes, and is also adjustable up to about 20". The clip that the cord adjusts through is plastic, as is the buckle that closes the whole loop.

But wait, there's more! You also get a free eye mask. It's not a great mask, and hardly counts as functional. It is functional, but barely. At 7 1/3" long and 3 3/4" tall at the eyes, it's no bigger than a lot of other eye masks out there, but the flimsy material lends itself well to doing nothing but flopping over. That's not a huge deal because it helps make things more opaque. The very light color of the mask also leaves things pretty light. Vision is blocked, but light isn't. It also picks up things like makeup very easily, but will stretch to fit heads up to 30" around fairly comfortable.

The only thing here that should need any regular cleaning is the ball gag if you decide to use it. Since the ball is rubber and the cord is porous, I'd keep it to just one person you use it on. Wash everything with warm soapy water, and make sure that everything is completely dry before putting it away. The mask and ropes you should be able to spot clean as necessary, or you can wash them in the sink with warm soapy water as well.

The best way I've found to use the ropes is in a hog-tie position; either in the front or in the back. If you attach one rope to both wrists/ankles and then feed the other rope around it, you can have them all meet at a point in the middle. You can also weave around a headboard or bed frame if you want, but don't use these for suspension. They're definitely not meant to hold the weight of a person without eventually causing injury.

In case you wanted some pictures, here's the whole set, a closeup of the ropes on a wrist, and a closeup of the gag:

Overall this was a neat thing to play around with, even if we may not use it much. It's a great set if you want to play around with rope bondage but don't have any idea where to start, or the knowledge to tie knots that will work the best for you. These are easy to get into and easy to get out of if you want to, but they're also good at restraining.