The Cobra Libre is the most “gadgety” of male sex toys that I’ve encountered. Not only does it look sleek and stylish, designed specifically to resemble a piece of technology that wouldn’t look out of place on a desk, rather than a crude facsimile of an orifice, but it also devotes its energy to bringing the user to climax in an entirely unconventional manner. The Cobra Libre was the original vibrating toy for men, back when all the alternatives involved thrusting, and it stimulates the penis exclusively through the use of two powerful motors mounted within it.
The opening of the Cobra Libre II is roughly 1 1/2″ in diameter, which isn’t huge but should be sufficient to accommodate most men when inserting the tip of their penis, and the pliableness in the top portion of the silicone aids with this. The inner channel of the Cobra Libre II has the strange oddly-shaped configuration that I struggled to understand in the original model, and the initial diameter of 1 1/2″ only extends to a depth of around 3/4″ before the material at the bottom takes on a stepped-shape which reduces the height of the opening by over half, and then the rest of the cavity continues at this size. The explanation according to the Fun Factory website is that the interior shape of the toy is designed to expose the glans “through the so-called ‘crowding out’ effect.” Perhaps something is lost in translation but this description doesn’t really mean anything to me, so I feel none the wiser. It also states that the silicone is intended to snugly hug the glans of the penis, which is something I can’t deny. Because of the unusual shape of the cavity it’s difficult to get much more than the head of the penis inside it, despite it having a total depth of around 3″, and in the process the snug fit tends to squeeze all of the blood out of the spongy glans, leaving it rather shrunken and deflated. I included a few photos on my previous review of me demonstrating this with a with a modestly-sized dildo, and I may recreate them again here at some point.
The Cobra Libre II is operated by 3 all new buttons on the top of the device. The “Fun” button turns the toy on when pressed for half a second, and turns the toy off once more when held again for the same length of time. The toy starts up not at the lowest setting but at a medium vibration, but this can be quickly reduced by pressing the ‘-‘ button once or twice to take the device into one of two slower training modes. To increase the power of the Cobra Libre the ‘+’ button is pressed, and by using these two buttons it’s incredibly simple to cycle up and down through all the different modes. In total the Cobra Libre II has 11 different modes: 2 slow training modes, 3 constant modes of incrementally increasing strength, 3 vibrating patterns of gradual increasing and decreasing intensity known as the slalom modes, and 3 free form patterns known as the rock ‘n’ roll modes.
The buttons are a vast improvement over the touchpad on the original Cobre Libre model. They give you tactical feedback when you push them, so you know that you’ve actually selected a change in mode, the device automatically responds when you use them, and you can’t accidentally hit one by mistake and ruin what you were doing. I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally turned on my old Cobra Libre when I had it out to compare with the new. It makes me so glad that they decided to make the change. It’s also incredibly easy to use the button locking feature on the new device. You hold down “Fun” and ‘-‘ for half a second and it locks the buttons, perfect for travelling when you don’t want anything starting to rumble unexpectedly in your luggage, and you hold down “Fun” and ‘+’ for another half a second to reactivate the buttons once you’re ready to use it again.
When you first turn the device on it immediately throws you in at the deep end with quite a strong rumbling sensation working away at the underside of the penis. If you’re already quite aroused then it’s a bit like “whoa!” and it can take you by surprise, so it’s good that you can quickly switch down into the training mode and give yourself a chance to become accustomed to the sensation before you explode ahead of schedule. It’s a stark contrast to how the old model starts with a very low and mellow vibration, but it’s evidence of how far they’re gone in overhauling the motors.
At the lowest level of the training mode you get quite a light and pleasant sensation, and the vibrations focus along the underside of the penis all around the sensitive frenulum, giving a gentle tickling and titillating feeling, which could probably be sustained indefinitely without ever inducing climax. As you get more and more used to it you can start to crank up the power to the higher settings, and this increased intensity brings with it a more and more pleasurable feeling which you can gradually sustain for longer and enjoy whilst still not having an orgasm. The highest power level of the constant vibrations is really quite strong, and easily enough to make you climax by itself, so if you want to get the full enjoyment out of the toy then it’s best to skip over it at the beginning to allow an opportunity to play around with some of the patterns. I did a little experiment with the two Cobra Libres to determine just how effective this new increase in power actually was. One of the things I found about the original device was that I couldn’t always orgasm from it, especially if I’d been engaging in traditional masturbation beforehand. On those occasions there just wasn’t enough power to send me over the edge, so I engineered a situation like that, and sat there using the original for a good 20 minutes on the highest setting to see if it could make me cum. When it failed I switched to the Cobra Libre II, and I’m happy to report that in 5 minutes or so the new motors had got the job done.
In contrast to this I must say that the Cobra Libre II still doesn’t feel quite as powerful to me as the Pulse by Hot Octopus, but they do employ quite different technology. The Pulse’s oscillating “Pulse Plate” sits right up at the surface of the toy, pressed against the frenulum, and delivers all its power directly into it with great intensity. The motors of the Cobra Libre II on the other hand are buried deeper within the device, rumbling powerfully like the focus of an earthquake, while the vibrations have to travel up to the surface to find the penis lying over the epicentre. Both are strong and effective, but you experience them rather differently, and of the two the Pulse is the one which feels more full on.
As well as the increasing power of the constant vibrations, the Cobra Libre II does of course have the 6 different patterned modes to offer. Unlike with the original Cobra Libre the patterns are all quite distinctive and much easier to differentiate from one another, but they’re still not particularly easy to explain so again I’ll include a scan of the pamphlet.
One of the positive changes about the Cobra Libre II is that I get a much more consistent experience with it than I did with the original. Over the two weeks I’ve been testing it it’s never failed to make me climax, and that’s not something I could say about the first model. It used to be a bit touch and go whether the toy would be able to give enough to just push me over the edge, but the Cobra Libre II works every time, and I think that’s an important feature of a sex toy, especially one in this price range.
The only real downside to the Cobra Libre II is that it’s now much more noisy than it used to be. Where the old model used the hum quite softly, the new one really kicks out a good old roar and rattle. It’s clearly a consequence of the new motors, but it’s also a little unfortunate if you’re looking for something exceptionally discreet, but still I doubt it could be heard through a door or partition wall, and it’s a little less noisy than the Pulse too.
The Cobra Libre is a rechargeable toy, and it comes supplied with a “Click ‘n’ Charge” magnetic adaptor. The end of the cable clips onto the two little metal electrodes protruding from back of the toy, and it stays in place quite securely. The new charging cables have a USB connector, so you’ll need to plug it into a PC unless you have an adaptor, or alternatively you can use one of the older “Click ‘n’ Charge” connectors if you own one. The buttons on the toy light up and flash in a different sequence to indicate how charged the battery is, so you can track its progress, and all the lights go out when it’s full.