The first thing that drew me to the Hand Solo, was its name. A Star Wars reference? Perhaps. Prove it. “May You Feel The Force” is the tagline on the sleek black and grey packaging. With the new film out, I thought it time to discover this men’s sex toy. I’m not a Star Wars or sci-fi fan, but it gives me an excuse to use a new toy. 

Hand Solo is a palm powered pleasure sleeve made by one of my favourite sex toy companies, Rocks Off. They’re an award winning, British based company known for their powerful ‘RO-80’ vibrating bullets and prostate toys for men. In my personal opinion, they create some of the best vibrators on the market.

It’s a textured silicone sleeve with a removable vibrating bullet inserted through the side. The bullet is controlled by an easy-to-use button on top and delivers seven vibration settings: low, medium and high constant, medium and fast pulse, and medium and fast splutter. You can also use it (and enjoy it) without the vibration.

Personally, I always like to alternate. It features a ‘grip’ for your four fingers to slide through, so you can wank comfortably holding its ergonomic, smooth shape. This gives your thumb easy access to the bullet control on top, meaning you can adjust the speed easily.

When you touch the Hand Solo, the softness of the silicone sleeve is instantly noticeable. It’s very flexible, assuring you can wrap your fingers through and ‘grip’ your dick just as you would with your fist when wanking. The open edge assures that it doesn’t matter how thick or slim your dick is, you can use the Hand Solo comfortably. Inside the sleeve there are textured inner contours or ‘raised dots’ as I would call them.

Using the Hand Solo is like having a “really posh wank”

Whether you’re well endowed or not, you can easily use the Hand Solo. It’s around five inches long but is used to grind up and down your dick, so the length is used where you put it.

Ok – so down to business (again). I began by putting A LOT of water-based lube on my Hand Solo. I did this because the pleasure bumps are quite pronounced and I wanted to assure a smooth ‘ride’ without too much friction. I also put a fair amount on my dick.

I would recommend using thicker water based lube such as Liquid Silk or Gun Oil LOADED (hybrid lube). Both are condom safe, so worth stocking up on for personal play and to use with toys. I turned on the vibration straight away and ‘gripped’ myself.

The intensity of the vibration is instant, taking me from semi-hard to hard, hard immediately. Especially when it rests on the back of your head – Wow! The nodules are instantly noticeable, which made me glad about the amount of lube I used, if you didn’t it MAY be a little too much for extra-sensitive guys.

Grinding it up and down initially was quite fascinating, as the nodules feel really strong against your shaft, they can be a little too much on your head – but just release your grip at the top if that’s the case.

Using the Hand Solo is what I would call a ‘really posh wank’ as it gives you extra intensity that you wouldn’t get from your hand, the way the bullet vibrates through the sleeve’s material and is really fun. Using this toy, you don’t feel like you can’t get to your dick and control motion, which can be quite frustrating with some masturbators.

It’s fun to grind it up and down, especially when the vibrating sleeve presses on your balls when you grind downwards.

“My favourite settings are pulsation and medium splutter”

It feels pleasantly ticklish – especially if you’ve just shaved down there. The wank with the Hand Solo is good, though I added more lube a couple times as the nodules are quite prominent and I didn’t want to numb myself through friction.

I tried different settings on the toy – my favourites being medium pulsation and medium ‘splutter’. It’s nice to use a toy you can grip your fingers and thumb around, just like you’re wanking, it makes the experience a lot more realistic. Using a toy like this makes it easier to control your pleasure and your orgasm. What I will say is that the force came strong.

The removable bullet is a great addition too. You can remove this bullet and use it against sensitive spots on your body – just don’t insert it. It’s not tapered. It feels particularly good against nipples, the frenulum and the perineum (gap between your balls and bum hole).

I was SOLO when using this toy (once again – poor me!) but this could be a lot of fun to use with a partner. I’ll Whatsapp him later, innit. Clean-up is really easy. I removed the bullet and ran the initial lube off with some warm water.

Then I added some toy cleaning spray from Clonezone, and ran it under the water again a few times – until it was clear. I left it out to dry – a couple hours later it was good to be put away in its drawstring bag.

• The Hand Solo costs £24.99 and is available from Clonezone stores nationwide and online at www.clonezone.co.uk