In England, we discovered Ann Summers shops, whose “speciality” is the Rampant Rabbit range of vibrators.
The main advantage of going to a “real” sex toy shop rather than an online sex shop is being able to fiddle with the display models to feel their texture, see how they work, check whether their vibrations seem effective, whether they look ergonomic, and whether they’re the right size for what you’re after.
You can certainly find the dimensions of the products online, but it can still be difficult to get a concrete idea of what they’re like. In short, you can’t rule out getting the scale wrong.
Ann Summers shops
They’re “loveshops”: the main difference between a loveshop and a traditional sex shop is that it’s more reassuring. It may seem a bit sterile, but at least you won’t find a dodgy atmosphere. The décor is like a clothes shop: no penises or fannies in the window, no blokes fondling their todgers in a corner.
It’s a big chain (according to Wikipedia, there are 144 shops in the UK, Ireland, Spain and the Channel Islands *, and 22 shops in the Middle East). Basically, it’s a bit like the Claire’s or Accessorize of sex toys.
(*) And while I’m at it, I’ve just discovered that the Channel Islands exist…
The Ann Summers Rampant Rabbit
Despite their rather worrying name when it comes to the health of the poor animal (Why is it crawling? Has it got no legs? I’d have preferred a hopping rabbit or a happy rabbit…), the Rampant Rabbits look pretty good overall.
Apart from one poor rabbit vibrator, mutilated and reduced to its ears, aptly named “Just the ears”, and “The cock ring”, a cock ring with rabbit ears, all the models in the range are rabbits (which is hardly surprising, given their name). They consist of two parts that vibrate independently of each other. The larger one is designed for vaginal penetration, while the smaller one, shaped like a rabbit with its two “ears”, allows you to stimulate the clitoris at the same time.
After fiddling with the various little bunnies, here’s what I took away (I hadn’t planned on bringing a notebook for taking notes on sex toys, so this will be fairly brief):
The Thrusting One
The head of this sex toy is telescopic and moves backwards and forwards while the rabbit vibrates.
The Silicon One
Ann Summers’ The Silicon One is a big vibrator. Not so big that it becomes scary, just nicely big. And rather attractive. Its “rabbit” part vibrates, while the insertable part rotates.
The Big One
This rabbit is even bigger, but it’s bloody ugly. Its two ends writhe about strangely. Ideal for anyone who fantasises about Barbapapa or the pink, tentacled space octopuses.
The Rotating One
The part designed for insertion contains beads that rotate around an axis. Whether that feels pleasant or irritating, you’d have to try it to find out.
The Clever One
It’s automatic: it’s supposed to detect how deeply it’s been inserted and adjust the intensity of its vibrations accordingly.
Little bunny, rabbit, long live the rabbits!
There are rabbits to suit every taste. The hardest part is the rabbit’s cock choosing.
Personally, I quite like The Silicon One; I might buy it one day (But online, because, well, taking a sex toy on a plane is a bit of a pain). In that case, you’ll get a review of the thing on this blog.
Speaking of rabbits, Jeannot Lapin is called Benjamin Bunny in the original, which sounds better (no, it’s not an erotic book).
Edit (December 2013): I didn’t end up buying a Rampant Rabbit after all. On rereading this article, I also notice that quite a few models in this range are made of jelly, which doesn’t exactly thrill me (when I wrote the above, I hadn’t done much reading up on the subject yet).
In the same vein as “The Silicon One”, I tested the Sexy Bunny 2 by Love to Love, whose movements are fairly similar. Read the Sexy Bunny 2 review.
