Which came first?

When it comes to male sex toys, there have been surprisingly few innovations. The Fleshlight was the first - which finally took the bright idea of a masturbation sleeve and turned it into something special. The next was the Tenga Flip Hole which corrected a few of the Fleshlight's weak spots (being difficult to clean) but didn't quite match the original's performance.

The Tenga Egg Masturbator is the next true sex sleeve innovation - a truly inspired product that delivers what the Fleshlight does, except in reverse.

Traditionally, there have been two types of masturbation sleeves - the soft, rubbery ones with a hole in both ends and the rigid sleeves like the Fleshlight and Tenga. The Tenga Egg takes the best of both and then exceeds all of them.

A tiny nub-sized sleeve - which nestles in its own egg-shaped carrying case - the Egg is basically the final inch or so of a sleeve. It's essentially just enough silicone to encompass the swollen glans of an erection of not a lot else.

But this is where it gets clever - because the sleeve itself is made from a stretchy, soft and succulent brand of silicone that actually expands to encompass the entire shaft on a downward stroke. If you're not quite getting me, just think of it as the Stretch Armstrong of sex sleeves.

With a soft and delicately nubbed interior, this results in a sleeve that literally fits in the palm of your hand, but actually embraces, stimulates and strokes more of your actual penis than many longer 'full-length' sleeves.

I almost wouldn't have believed it, but the Egg is made from 100% pure silicone - which is 100% pure win for sex toy purists. I'm not sure how the manufacturers managed to achieve the softness and suppleness, but they managed to get it absolutely right with this toy - giving it the softness to feel like real flesh, while still retaining the stretch to expand to encompass an entire penis.

And silicone being silicone, of course, this toy is totally sterilizable, pthalate-free and odorless.

The design and fit of the Tenga Egg is nothing short of inspired - it is about the size of a guy's engorged glans, and neatly crowns the tip of a cock. You then 'stetch it' with the downward stroke of the palm to reap the stimulation. It sounds like it should be a recipe for disaster, but it's not. It works perfectly.

The benefits of the closed 'egg' design are that it stimulates the glans throughout the entire process (I tend to 'pop' out of the end of open-ended masturbation sleeves) and also catches the come when you orgasm. It's a very clever, nifty design and is truly innovative.

Simplicity must be the key - there's not much in the way of sophistication here (it's practically the antithesis of the Fleshlight and Flip Hole) but, astonishingly, comes within remarkable range of rivaling them for sensation - and eclipses them in terms of ease of use, convenience and cleanup.

Silicone is a breeze to clean. You can boil it, or use soap and water. The plastic egg case is the perfect place to store it and is incredibly discreet. It comes with its own lube, although I used my water-based favorite. Just remember never to use oil-based or silicone lube with this product.

The Tenga Egg comes in a cracking (get it?) little plastic egg that makes the perfect storage pod for it. It also comes with a sleeve of lube.

I was blown away by how clever and well-designed this product was. Well done Tenga!

I will admit that I don't get to orgasm with all that many masturbation sleeves. There's got to be a careful balance between stimulation and softness, give and grasp. The Tenga Egg managed to get the balance just right. It embraces the glans, stimulates the shaft and feels almost as good as the real thing. It brought me to orgasm quickly and highly satisfyingly.