RF - Armbinder

RF has released a new armbinder, and its quite an interesting one.

Appearance

 First thing worth noting, Katie has included a new Style HUD. Its a fairly simple one, but works well. Can select each texture/colour combo for each piece without the need to menu dive. Also includes the RGB grid that so many use these days that I still say is the best, so glad more stores are using it. Currently however it does NOT have access to the Others set of textures, which include some fun ones, like zebra stripes, tartan, etc.

 Onto the armbinder itself. Its actually really quite nice. About elbow length as opposed to the more common mid-upper arm design we see in SL. While the textures are Katie's norm, they seem to fit the armbinder better than most of gear, I'd say this things textured very well. It includes an optional chest harness and crotch strap as well, for added security. The crotch strap seems especially evil. A belt around your waist, then the crotch piece itself going down and being attached to the armbinders ring, meaning you yank on your restraint.. You get the idea

 You can also hide the handsack. This does NOT rez your hands back however, and instead adds a pair of mesh hands instead, which can be recoloured to match your skin of course, and the fingernails can be done separately as well. You can even recolour the hands black (or colour of your choice) with the RGB grid and add shine to make seem somewhat latexy.

 It has Katies normal textures, 10 latex, 10 leather, 10 fingernails, 5 preset skin and 9 Others (accessed the old fashioned way via the style menu in the restraint). Its unrigged mesh, so easy to manually resize, or use the plugin in the Plugins menu. 39 sub anims this time.

Function

 The usual warning, do not lock it without taking the key first unless you want to be helpless

 To be honest, its pretty much the Transport jacket again with some small differences. First menu is Style again, second is leashing, which has an additional option of letting you Leash to the wrists, or to the front (if harness is on). Plugins includes a resizer, though its easy to fit this manually if you know how to edit prims to any extent.

 Sub anims is next, the timelock/timebound system following that. In the Settings menu you can adjust whether or not the harness appears when you aren't restrained.. Keys is the same as ever. Restraints has a few extras. You can Hide/show the crotch strap, the harness and the handsack here. It uses the Tight/Tighter/Tightest system again, each one adding more touch restrictions. Last is unlock. I do not need to explain that..

Scores

 Quality -   It looks good. Different enough to others to make to add to the appeal - 9/10
 Function - The usual from RF, works well, some little extras. style HUD is very nice to see - 8/10
 Price - 500. I think that's cheaper than others on the market? Don't quote me on that.

KDC - Chastity Belt

So, a new toy from KDC

Appearance

As you;d expect from KDC, visually this thing is high quality. It also has a colour hud that lets you fully adjust it to match whatever else you have on, (or to make it stand out more if you're a humiliation, etc kinda person)

It DOES have poses built in but.. Well the function section will explain. Its mesh, in two pieces so you can adjust the waistband and the crotch area separately for a better fit. Each of the rings around the edge can have chains linked to it if you have other TouchBound gear (KDC cuffs to be exact), and you can use the fingerprint lock included to lock each ring, making a padlock appear.

Function
 
So.. How to put this. First things first, DO NOT BIND YOURSELF TO THE FINGERPRINT LOCK, at least not if you bought this to have your owner lock it on you. Also if you want public play? You have to go buy one of the more conventional padlocks from KDC.

All of KDCs gear uses touchbound these days. You click the lock (finger or normal), click the ring/area you want to lock, and its locked on. If you click say, a ring, then one of her cuffs, it'll chain them together. However, if you do not own any of her cuffs, the belts mostly visual only. Which is why there's so few pics for this one, I don't own any of her cuffs.

Her key system is.. fairly simple I think. If you buy the normal padlocks, you rez them, accept an unlinking permission, you can then take the key and padlock. If you rez them on the ground, anyone can use them, whereas if you wear them, only you can. Unlike the fingerlock, you need to use both items. The padlock to lock things, the key to unlock. Its a simple system, and it does work (I know I said before it was horrible), but I still feel a lot are gonna make mistakes with it unless they read up first. Lets hope this review helps with that.

So, long story short. Belt has poses. Poses can only be used if you have KDC cuffs. Fingerlock can only be used by the person bound to it. Do not bind self to fingerlock if you want it for someone else. Buy padlock if you want more public access.

My thoughts

Its a good looking belt, and the hud allows for plenty of customising, so both pluses there.

I want to try and like touchbound. Its concept is great, but the documentation on its usage is all on KDCs wiki-like page, and most SL users in my experience aren't gonna go shooting off to a webpage to learn this stuff. Hell most of them don't even read NCs in world that come with toys.

Touchbound is a nice idea, but the key system is my major fault with it I suppose. For photoshoots, or D/S play between two long term, it;ll work fine. For those that like spontaneous bondage or sudden RP? Its gonna have some issues.

Scores
Appearance - Unable to fully rate, was unable to see poses - 7/10 based on looks alone
Function - Good in theory, but needs.. Something to ensure people don't mess it up - 5/10
Price - 400 Linden

RF transport Jacket

New release from Katie at RF tonight, a different kind of straitjacket

Appearance

Transport jackets tend to be sleeveless straitjackets, and apparently are the easiest to escape form if you aren't otherwise tied up underneath.. Or strapped in extra tight over the top, kinda like this one. It appears to made of very thick canvas/latex/leather depending on your choice of texture, with the straps adding ab it more definition, you can see what I resume are the arms making the material bugle lower down. I think the upper form is self explanatory. There's no crotch strap, but Katie says the pantie area works as that so.. Must be *very* tight/thick down there!

There are 9 canvas textures, 10 latex, 10 leather, with the ability to add a few more of you own if you want to. You can freely recolour/texture pretty much every part individually which is nice. White it only has one restraint pose, its not the type of restraint that needs many.. Though maybe having the arms behind as an option would be nice.

It comes with 40 sub anims built in as well, one up on the 39 that the mittens had. The jacket comes in 7 sizes, being rigged mesh, and has an unrigged collar and handles (more on these below) that you can adjust. Also has a click helper (invisi prim over the body) for easier menu access.

Personally I like this things looks.. I am starting to wish that Katie would add a few darker shades for her latex though, blood red instead of bright red for example!

Function

Lets see.. Its got most of the standard RF formula in it. First menu is style, second is Leash. Plugins is next, with nine of the usual RF suspects, including the RLV menu, catatonic, etc. Ignore the bit stating that there are two pages, that's a known bug.

The Sub anims menu is the first one of the next row, fairly simple. Go in, select pose, hit release when you want to stop it. Timelock is split in two, as is usual from RF these days. Timelock to completely free the person, keys back, etc, timebound to merely untie them, but leave them still without keys.


Settings does have a new option - Grab. With the jacket come two handles, mentioned above, that should be attached to the middle straps. These effectively work like a leash, with a bit extra. Someone can Grab you, then you can get a struggle minigame. If you fail it too many times, it presumes your captor is too strong for you to escape from, and leaves you helpless in their grasp. Otherwise the usual menus in here, Expose, Verbose, etc.

The usual key menu is next, with Restraints following. While the options in here have no visible effect (shame! Having the straps visibly tighten would be nice), each level of tightness further restricts you touch capabilities. Tight stops you touching others, Tighter takes away far touch, and Tightest takes away touch world. If you are the domme/keyholder and want to take away touch self, that's in the RLV menu.

Last is Lock/Unlock. I sincerely doubt I need to explain their usage.

Oh, and a warning! Don't lock/strap it without the key unless you want to be helpless. You can't free yourself if you do.

Scores

Quality - It looks good, though the material must be VERY thick - 8/10
Function - Usual RF functionality, some nice little extras like the grab and touch restrictions separate it from her other gear though - 8/10

Price - 400 linden

Senastions - Mesh gag

Another sensations piece today, their gag this time.

Appearance

Lets see.. Its a harness gag by default, with, to be honest, a half ton of options built in. I count 20 primary gags, with sub options to most of them as well. Quite effective.

The add-ons menu and gags menu are both packed. You can adjust the gag to be a normal single strap, or with just a chin strap, to the full harness. You can add pony blinders, a plume, and so on

In terms of colouring, there's plenty of options as well, lots of colouring, with each part of the gag able to be retextured individually (so if you wanted neon green straps, with a pink ball, yellow metal and a purple plume, you could)

So yes, all in all a VERY customisable gag, so that's good.

The bad? This thing is a pest to fit, at least for my shape, so if you see any slight clipping or the something else that seems off in the pics, you know why.

Function

So a few things to note first before I do my usual method of top left to bottom right.

This thing is slow. When you hit an option to adjust how it looks, expect to wait a good 20 seconds or so for it to register. The other issue is that it seems to IM block by default. You need to manually set it to not IMmute. Bit of a pest, that option should NEVER be on by default.

Now to the normal reviewing.

The first menu is help. In here you can get a help NC, go to a help webpage, get an FAQ or get the Sensations HUD. The second is Touchable. This stops others touching it if turned off I believe. Lastly for the top row we have Update, self explanatory.

The next is Deactivate/Activate. This pretty much is what makes the gag work. Restraint is your typical RLV menu.. With options for just about every possible thing, 6 pages worth. It can even stop you changing group. Lastly for row 2 is Add/Remove, a menu that lets you go into the RLV folder of the wearer, or your own, handy if inventory is blocked.)

Row 3 starts with gags, the main dish. As said above, there are 20 different gags, with suboptions for good measure. As also said above, albeit a bti lower down than the previous one, you need to manually unIMmute each one.

One gag is slightly different. table. When used, you can select something to be placed on it such as chocolate or a cigarette, and it will give it out to any who touch it.

Add-ons is mentioned above, you can also find an IM-Mute button in here (turn it off!), as well as blindfold. The blindfold blocks your vision using enviromental filters or the like, no HUD, and can't be bypassed without having RLV off if you want to see it in full. You can also adjust tightness in here, making the gag garble you more or less, or even not at all.

Lastly for row three is Appearance. In here you can change the sub-options for your gag (say ball by itself, or with a mask as well), as well as retexture it, and lastly resize it.

Last row is fairly simple. You can leash first and foremost.. Which has some interesting options. A public leash mode, the leashes texture, and so on. The owner button is simple, add an owner for the gag. Lastly is lock. In here you can set "Memory", which reminds you who locked it. Pickable, which lets you well, pick the locks, and leave/hide key for obvious usage. It would seem you cannot lock it yourself.

Perhaps the worst bit for me is the lack of a timelock. I mean I can live with the rest of the issues, as they are easily fixed.. but no timelock is always a bad thing. Another minor issue is the anim priority, when I used stuff like the bit gag, my lower jaw kept trying to close then open again, very slight, but noticeable when zoomed in for pic taking.

 My thoughts

I like this gag, despite its issues, but its very much one I'd say thats not for RP. Everytime I changed gag, I found myself having to adjust it again, which is not good when the emotes are flowing. For photoshoots though, I imagine it would be amazing. Add in a timelock, and this thing would be one of, if not the best, multi-gag in SL that I know of.


Scores

Appearance - Iffy fitting, otherwise very nice - 8/10
Function - Slowdown, no timelock, auto-IMblock.. - 7/10
Price - 950 linden