I started with a rear eye Chinese belt, then a rear wire Chinese belt, a MySteel rear wire Active, then another Chinese rear wire and finally a drop waist Tollyboy. Yes a lot of belts!
Firstly I'd say that I do not like Chinese rear eye. They have a full liner covering the front plate and anal region but it's not glued in securely so all sorts of nastiness can get between the liner and the belt. I ripped the liner out and was left with shear metal against my skin, forcing the buttocks apart. It's doable but not the most pleasant sensation. More like a torture device....and that's not what we are aiming for. We want a belt that a girl can be fully active in and wear 24/7. So, I would not recommend anyone buys a Chinese rear eye. Other manufacturers may just seal the outside of the rear eye and avoid stink issues but I have no knowledge of those belts....
Spicesforlove Chinese ergonomic rear wire? Well I loved that belt. It was so malleable! No it doesn't come 'ready to wear' out the box. But that's the fun! You can adjust the waist band and front plate. Keep unscrewing the tiny screws and adjusting it. I decided I wanted it to be a hip band rather than waist, so I bought tin snips and cut the front plate down. Bought a metal hole punch to make new holes for the screws. When I was really happy with the fit, I removed all the screws and hammered in permanent rivets. Again, I removed the 'full liner' in the front plate. It seems as though all Chinese belts have that full liner. Nasty. But as it was a rear wire, it was really comfortable; the front plate metal did not dig into my skin. One point though. The rivets rusted inside the front plate and caused marks on my skin which are still there months later. I resealed those rivets by painting nail polish over them....
All was great with my Chinese rear eye. Perfect fit, I'd fitted it myself
And I wore it 24/7 for several months. BUT then the soldering broke on the attachment between the hip band and the wire. Could I have re soldered it myself? Maybe. But the attachment is so small, I wasn't confident it would last....I ordered another identical belt. Same order number....But the same belt from the same company was not the same. The buckle lock didn't work well. But more importantly, the wire wasn't sealed correctly. It was sealed at the hip band attachment and front plate but then left open on the rest of the wire. They had basically placed a rubber tube about 1 inch long, at the hip band and front plate, sealed those two ends but the other end of each tube was open. Immediate stink point. I cut the belt down to size but never showered, used the bathroom in it, as I knew pools of liquid would sit in those tubes. Yuck!
MySteel. Well I was very excited to order this belt! Lots of money. Well over $1000. But I quickly discovered that I'd ordered it from MySteel.ne not the original site MySteel.de. So I'd paid my money to a middleman in Amsterdam not the real manufacturers in Germany. The middlemen were very sporadic with their emails, English was poor. It took many weeks for my belt order to actually go through to Germany...I was in constant contact with Germany all the time and although they were quick to respond, they basically didn't help. I was repeatedly told that I must deal with the NE vendor and all communication and payment must come through them. That made me very frustrated. Surely the vendor in Amsterdam is working for, representing MySteel?
Eventually the Amsterdam dealer sent the order and payment through to Germany and my belt could be made. And my belt arrived pretty quickly. By that point, I was just happy to get a belt. I thought I'd lost my money and wouldn't receive anything....
As soon as I opened the box, I could tell the belt was too small. It was tiny. And sure enough, it didn't fit. I conversed back and forth with Germany. Was the wire too small, or the hip band. Something was very wrong. Also I ordered a convex plate, they sent flat.
They agreed to replace either the hip band ie make it bigger to accommodate how low the belt would have to sit. Or replace the wire, so the hip band would be higher on my body and fit. But I would have to pay more plus shipping. By then, I was done spending money on this belt. So I never sent it back.....
I have however lost weight this summer. Down from 123 pounds to 102. The MySteel almost fits me on it's loosest hip band fitting. I can wear it for a few hours before it truely digs into my hip bones and causes severe debilitating pain. Literally I can't walk. It is pure torture. I know that the measurements that I gave them were correct. And even after losing a sixth of my body weight, the belt still doesn't fit.
However, I like the MySteel. That's why I keep persevering! The craftsmanship and quality of the metal is amazing! I love the flat non adjustable front plate, it's sleek design. The padlock on the hip band is tiny. The belt is perfect, it only it would fit.....
So next Tollyboy drop waist. I got measured in person and actually they had a hip band that fitted me perfectly, so with that in place, they only needed to measure for front plate and wire.
The belt arrived quickly and is very high quality metal. I would say on par with MySteel. The drop waist belt sits at my hips but is slightly higher at the back than any of my other belts. Then it dips lower at the front, just skimming my hips. No hip crushing!! I must say it's really really comfortable. Yes at the moment, my coccyx can feel the wire but that happens with all rear wire belts and that sensation does go away. Tollyboy has a radial lock not a padlock. So it sticks out more. I'm not so keen on that. I'd prefer a sleeker lock. But the fact that it fits and is super comfortable outweighs my feelings about the locking mechanisms!
So that's the basic outline of all the belts.
I will update more later, going into precise details and comparisons of certain areas, for example secondary shields, locks etc.
