Sometimes, vibrators are amazing triumphs of engineering perfectly aligned to my needs, and I love them for those reasons. And sometimes, vibrators are cute and moderately successful, and while they’re not earth-shattering or unique, they’re pretty good. The Whale vibrator from IMToy‘s Zoo line falls into the latter category. While it’s not perfect, it has a lot going for it overall.
Unboxing the Whale
The Whale comes in a small, simple peach box with a cute whale on it. At first glance, it definitely looks more like a box for a kids’ bath toy than a sex toy.
Inside, there’s an instruction manual in a ton of different languages, which doesn’t really give a lot of information except the basics, and then there’s the actual toy.
The whale is cute! It’s silicone, peach-pink colored, and has a rose gold tip for magnetic charging. The cord matches it in color scheme.
As you can see, the external end has some good flexibility in it. It’s got decent heft as well: while it’s not very heavy, it’s solid, and it’s got a good textured feel.
Tech: Not Quite Apptastic
The Whale, and all the IMToy Zoo creatures, has an app for controlling the vibrator. This is essential if you want yours to do anything more than a series of low, medium, and high. I downloaded the app without a problem, and I paired it with my toy, also without incident. Hurray for Bluetooth technology.
The app, though, is not very intuitive to use. There are a bunch of vibration patterns, but it’s hard to tell what each one is going to do from the looks of it, except the one that ramps up and down. The others are hard to anticipate and also hard to distinguish one from the other. Sometimes I couldn’t quite figure out whether the app stopped working or whether the two settings were so similar as to be indistinguishable. As a result, a bunch of them felt redundant.
There are other settings for the app, too. You can draw your vibration pattern, and then the vibrator will ramp up and down based on the drawing. This was something I played with for a little while, because it’s pretty fun, although not precise in the way it translates drawing into intensity. It’s still a neat idea, and different from the ones where the intensity follows your finger in real-time. With this, you can complete the drawing, then hit play, and it’ll recreate your drawing rather than requiring you to be manually controlling the screen at all times.
There’s also a setting to interface with your music and match its vibrations, as well as videos, lending some more interactivity to your porn. With another feature, you can talk into the microphone and the app translates that sound into vibrations. Cute, but only moderately successful. Has this designer ever tried to get a person off with a vibrator? Inconsistent vibrations are not the way to go. I’m not going to be able to talk my way into an orgasm, even someone like me who could talk forever.
You can also set it to vibrate more strongly when you shake your phone. Let’s be real, though: that can’t be good for the phone, right? It’s a cute idea, but not very practical. I’m not going to sit here shaking the hell out of my phone trying to reach orgasm.
Going Whaling
I’m not sure that’s the best title for this section. It’s a little fucked up, come to think of it. So am I, so I’m keeping it.
After playing with the app a bit, I started to use the toy legitimately. The wider silicone bulb was hefty enough to be noticed, which I appreciate, and it pressed nicely against my internal walls and a bit against my g-spot. The external part of the whale is designed to fit against the clit, and it… pretty much did. I say pretty much because it doesn’t quite align anatomically with me, and so I wasn’t getting exact perfect contact.
Exact perfect contact in a vibrator like this is really difficult to achieve, though, so I’m willing to forgive.
Once i had the whale working, the strength of the vibrations were generally pleasing. They were buzzy, though, rather than thuddy. As a result, they didn’t bring me to orgasm as quickly or reliably as other, thuddier vibes. The buzzy vibrations didn’t travel down to the clitoris as reliably, either. I was getting secondhand vibrations transmitted through the narrow part of the toy, as it was designed, but with the slightly off clitoral alignment and the buzziness, it wasn’t exactly a match made in heaven.
The whale had some redeeming qualities, though! The width of its internal bulb meant I felt the vibrations all throughout my vagina, and they were strong enough that even with the not-exactly-ideal clitoral placement, I still got stimulation. Also, once I got sick of screwing around with the different-but-not-different vibration patterns, I was able to focus my way into orgasm. It wasn’t an unavoidable, transcendent, powerful build to climax, but I got off nonetheless.
Whaling… In Public?
One of the purported features of the Whale is the ability to wear it discreetly in public. This is not a feature I’ve personally tested. I love the idea of remote control vibrators, and I did a whole podcast episode about them, but I’m hesitant to use them in public, and here are a few reasons:
For one, the toy is quiet, but it’s not silent. If the room you’re in suddenly goes quiet, your vibrator is going to be audible.
The second point relates to the first point. I’m not a fan of involving nonconsenting people in my kinkiness or sex play. All the rest of the people in the world? They didn’t consent to watch me get off. So while the idea of an illicit public vibrator is fun, it’s not something I’m genuinely interested in unless I’m sure I won’t be discovered. I don’t know what that environment would be. I could imagine the Whale being fun on road trips, though… as long as I’m not the one driving.
General (salute here) thoughts
The IMToy Zoo whale vibrator is a pretty good vibrator. It’s a good material, a solid motor, a nice shape, and a decent app. It can get me off. It’s fairly quiet, too: when I’m wearing it, it’s not going to wake up someone in the next room. The whale is a quality toy that will be really satisfying for most users, especially if they like buzzy vibes.
This vibrator also has the added, wonderful benefit that the IMToy people donate money to South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust for every Zoo-line toy they sell. That’s pretty cool! Orgasms for charity? I’m here for this.
The app is mediocre. I would rather be able to create my own vibration patterns and save them rather than have a dozen patterns, half of which seem identical to other patterns. The other features, like talking into it, interfacing with music or video, and shaking, seem novel but not especially practical.
It also seems odd that the app can’t connect with a partner. Isn’t part of the joy of Bluetooth technology the ability to connect sex toys across the globe? The Zoo app is designed for one person only, and so if you want a friend involved, they need to be with you in person.
Overall, the Zoo Whale is a fun vibrator. It’s not the best of its kind, but it’s effective and fun to use. I wish it were a “whale of a good time” so I could make that pun, but alas, I cannot. It’s a porpoise of a good time in a whale body.
The Whale was provided by IMToy in exchange for this honest review. No affiliate links are used in this post.
