Shopping for sex toys is as personal and as tricky as shopping for perfume or cologne: You can read the webpage as many times as you want, but you can never tell for sure whether you’ll enjoy the product until it’s actually in your life. You might not even know whether you made the right choice until you’ve tried out your new purchase a few times, on different days, in different moods.
This is one of the reasons it’s smart to buy fragrance samples before committing to a whole bottle — and by the same token, if you’re not sure exactly what’ll work for you, it’s also smart to buy sex toys that are versatile and can even be physically adjusted as needed to fit your body better, like the Unbound Bender. The more flexibility a toy gives you, both literally and figuratively, the more likely it is that you’ll find one or more ways you like to use it — instead of just being bummed out that you splurged on a toy that does nothing for you.
What Is the Unbound Bender?
The Unbound Bender is a rechargeable vibrator designed to pleasure the clit, G-spot or any external erogenous zones you want. (It’s not anal-safe, though.) It’s long and slim, with seven inches of length and a max circumference of 3.5 inches, and covered in smooth, matte silicone. However, unlike many other vibrators, the Bender bends.
Yep, the middle section of this vibrator can be flexed and twisted, so you can give it whatever shape you think will work best for your body on any given day. I’d imagine that many users prefer an upward curve, to hit their G-spot, but your options are nearly limitless.
The Bender has 10 different vibration settings you can flip through — four steady speeds followed by six vibration patterns. It’s waterproof, so long as you don’t submerge it deeper than three feet or for more than 30 minutes at a time. It comes with a satiny, shiny silver storage bag which, while certainly not discreet, is super cute and convenient.
My Experience with the Unbound Bender
The first thing I noticed about the Bender was how adorable looking it is. Mine is a turquoise color that reminds me of relaxing summer days by the lake.
The next thing I noticed, though, was the creaky-crackly noise the Bender makes when you bend it. It’s midway between “taking off a pair of Velcro shoes” and “tiptoeing down the old wooden stairs of a haunted mansion.” It’s not a huge deal, but it certainly does contribute to the overall, shall we say, ambiance of a masturbation session.
When I turned on the Bender for the first time, I shouted “Whoa!” out loud because even the lowest vibration speed was way more powerful than I’d been expecting. But it’s not just that the vibrations are powerful — it’s that they’re buzzy, meaning that they have a high-pitched quality to them and tend to stimulate the surface of the skin, rather than resonating deeper into the body. For me and many others, that makes buzzy vibrations less pleasurable and less satisfying than their opposite, rumbly vibrations. One reviewer on the Unbound website described the Bender’s motor as being “not enough, yet too much at the same time,” which sounds a lot like how buzzy vibrations feel to me — annoyingly aggressive, and yet also somehow not powerful enough to get me off.
Part of the reason high-pitched vibrations interfere with pleasure is that they have a greater tendency to cause some numbness after a few minutes of use (it’s only temporary, don’t worry). Before I even put the Bender on my junk, I felt this effect on my hand, because its design unfortunately conducts a lot of vibration into my fingers while I’m using it. It’s like when you’re seated close to the engine on a plane and you can feel the buzzing in your very bones — except, imagine feeling that while you’re trying to jerk off. As soon as I noticed the telltale sensations of buzzy vibrations in my hand — tingling, desensitization, a slight itchiness — I knew my clit was gonna have a bad time.
Indeed, it did. The super-intense surface-level buzzing, with very little low-pitched rumbliness to back it up, kind of made my clit tune out and numb out; I could barely feel anything after a couple of minutes, in my genitals or my right hand. But I decided to test the Bender out internally, and that went somewhat better.
As often happens with insertable vibes, the Bender got significantly quieter once I inserted it, as if my vaginal walls had been lined with foam soundproofing panels like a home recording studio. I wouldn’t call it a loud vibrator — you can hear it across a room but not through a closed door if there’s music on — but its menacing buzzing sound can be a bit distracting, so I was glad that my vag tamped down the noise a bit. It also tamped down the vibration in my fingers, so that I could comfortably hold onto the toy while thrusting it.
The vibrations felt better for me internally, too. Combining this toy with a good clitoral vibe can send me over the edge — so long as I haven’t numbed my clit by trying to use the Bender on it first.
The shape and size of the Bender are best-suited for beginners to penetration, or people who just prefer smaller penetration. With a diameter that tops out at just over 1.1 inches, this toy certainly isn’t gonna fill you up — but with its bendability, it can still hone in on your sensitive internal spots easily.
The bending feature is pretty cool, and better executed than some other bendable toys I’ve tried. Dildos with “poseable” cores, for instance, tend to get straightened back out by the force exerted by my vaginal muscles when I use them (not trying to humblebrag about how many Kegels I do, I swear). The Bender, on the other hand, takes a decent amount of force to be reshaped, so I find that it holds its form decently well during gentle-to-moderate thrusting. If you like to ram your G-spot really hard and fast — and I don’t blame you — you’d be better off with a curved dildo made of glass or stainless steel; these’ll hold up to a pounding way better than this flexible vibrator.
One thing that stresses me out about the bending feature, though, is that Unbound doesn’t offer any instruction on how far is too far, so I’m always worried I’m about to snap the Bender in half by accident. A few online reviewers mentioned that their Bender encountered mechanical or cosmetic issues from being bent too far, though most noted that the vibrations still worked.
What Other People Are Saying About the Unbound Bender
Lots of reviewers on the Unbound site described, in their own unique ways, the disappointing buzziness of the Bender’s motor. “The vibration patterns are fine but the range of vibration form is not great, all the modes are ‘sharp’ thus lacking deep, throbbing ones,” one user wrote. “It goes from electric tooth[brush] to electric sander with nothing in between,” someone else colorfully opined.
Then again, many other reviewers loved the Bender. Buzzy vibrations aren’t my cup of tea but there are people who prefer them, for the way they sharply stimulate the surface of their skin. Some reviewers even said their Bender made them squirt for the first time, gave them their first G-spot orgasm or even gave them their first orgasm, full stop. “I didn’t think I could have G-spot orgasms. Thanks, Bender, for proving me wrong,” one person wrote. “The Bender gave me my first clitoral orgasm!!” said another satisfied customer. Yet another confessed, “I get two drinks in me and start telling my friends to get a Bender and ditch their boyfriends that aren’t satisfying them.”
Many users found creative ways to use the Bender, a toy that, again, encourages inventiveness. “I like having it hitting my G-spot and bend it back against the perineum for full-coverage vibes. Mmmm mmmmmmmm,” one person wrote. Another explained, “Using it in a queer relationship with a strap-on and it’s thin enough to fit in the harness of the strap-on, but powerful enough for us both to feel it.”
Ultimately, the flexibility of the Bender is its best feature, one that empowers users to seek out the exact sensations they’re looking for, rather than needing to settle for toys with an angle or curve that isn’t quite right. “The bendability makes it easier to reach my G-spot, and I’ve been having deeper orgasms than I could on my own or without a partner,” one reviewer gushed. “It’s an amazing feeling to finally be able to take control of that part of my sexuality.”
If you want to take control like that too — and don’t mind a few annoying quirks — maybe it’s about time you get to know the splendor of the Bender as well.
Kate Sloan
Kate Sloan is the author of the books '101 Kinky Things Even You Can Do' and '200 Words to Help You Talk About Sexuality & Gender,' and has reviewed over 300 sex toys on her blog at GirlyJuice.net, to the chagrin of her high school guidance counselor. She also cohosts the podcasts 'The Dildorks' and 'Question Box.'
