The Rubbot project was an attempt to create a satisfactory male sex toy by a group of dissatisfied independent product designers. Followers of the group’s Rubbot homepage were increasingly frustrated at having to read the documenting of yet more delays and problems in a project that began in 2006.

The makers of the mythical Rubbot decided recently that they would set a public deadline of January 15th this year for the sex toy to be officially announced to be ready, or else the project would be abandoned. With this deadline passing, it seems that the group have played fair and ended the Rubbot as a public exercise. The good news is that they are going to continue, if a little more privately and informally, to seek the holy grail of a male sex toy that will satisfy every man.

Although the news is a little disappointing, in a sense the Rubbot project has been rendered a little irrelevant. Since the project started nearly 4 years ago, the Tenga Flip Hole has demonstrated that sex toys for men can provide incredible physical sexual pleasure in themselves. Hell, I don’t even have to think of anything sexy anymore when I’m using it. We also now have the RealTouch, a virtual sex device that puts any sex toy for women currently available in a different epoch. Fleshlight continues to produce better and better toys, with a growing range of realistic pussys modelled on the actual vaginas of female pornstars and even recently introducing a Fleshlight vibrator. We have an increasing number of blowjob machines- in fact the world of male sex toys has been transformed in the last few years, and now that the taboo of men using sex toys seems to have been well and truly smashed, it seems inevitable that male masturbators will continue to improve in the near future. Combined with the latest developments in virtual sex and 3D porn, male masturbation has never looked in better shape.

Despite that, it is disappointing that the Rubbot project has been discontinued, at least as a public exercise. Never before had the science of male sexual pleasure been so thoroughly analysed. It was also refreshing and quite unique to have a project dedicated to the sexual needs of men.