This toy was a great starting place for my husband and me. We've never really gotten into the kinkier side of things, but recently have been discussing it. A lot of other toys we saw looked a bit intimidating, but this one we liked. The "Good" end is really nice, the feathers were really good for sensory play, and really fun to tease each other with. The crop was better than I expected it to be, it is nice and firm so it definitely delivers a nice little sting, but it's not exactly painful. I'm sure if you were to spank hard enough with it it could be on the painful side, but my husband is always a little hesitant to do so. I will say that this toy is pretty much a foreplay-only toy for us. It's great for getting each other excited and playful, but once things really get going it usually gets tossed aside.

The feather spanker seems to be made out of pretty decent materials, which one would expect since it costs a bit more than other toys in the same class. The feathers are very nice, not like the cheap marabou you find on some feather ticklers, which falls out and molts all over the place. They didn't fall out during play, or even when I tugged on them lightly, they are anchored pretty nicely into a plastic cup on the end of the rod. The rod itself is made of PVC, and has no noticeable smell to me, one thing I do not like is that the rod scratches up easily, it had a few scuffs on it when I received it actually. It seems pretty flexible though, and didn't break when I bent it some, I'm sure it would hold up well even under very heavy play. The leather crop seems to be very nicely made, and definitely has a leather smell to it.

The spanker worked great for us, exactly what I expected from it. It's comfortable for foreplay and teasing, but has also held up very well under heavier spankings, it's not flimsy at all. So far it has not left ANY marks on me, which I love. Then again, I'd say we only ever go to a moderate level. It might leave a few red marks with really heavy spanking, but it has yet to do so on me, and I tend to mark pretty easily.

Pretty simple to take care of. I just wipe the leather end clean with a wet wipe after play, and the feathers I leave alone. I don't want to take a chance of causing them to fall out. I have yet to find a good way to really store this toy. It's too big to go in any of my drawers, and I'm a bit weird about just shoving things under my bed, so I usually just leave it on my headboard. I don't let people come into my room so I'm not bothered by leaving it out.

I kind of wish this would have come in a nice box... heck... even just a plain slim cardboard box. However, it came in a HUGE bulky plain cardboard box, inside of which it was just wrapped up in brown packing paper, with a simple tag around the stem. It seemed pretty senseless to reuse the packaging because it was so oversized.