--- title: The Mic Is Back On | 3D Printing, Ring Racks and Las Vegas description: Season 2 of I Make Sex Toys is back. Wayne on the year off, rebuilding the 3D print farm, ring racks, turning 21, and heading to Las Vegas. canonical_url: https://imakesextoys.me/season-2/the-mic-is-back-on language: en-GB date: 2026-07-02T19:28:00Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://imakesextoys.me/season-2/the-mic-is-back-on. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 3299 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://imakesextoys.me/season-2/the-mic-is-back-on. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. The podcast went quiet for over a year. Running the business got in the way of talking about running the business, which is probably the most on-brand thing I have ever done. So this is the relaunch. What we have been up to, why we built a 3D print farm from scratch, and the reason I am about to get on a plane to Las Vegas. **Listen:** [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mic-is-back-on-3d-printing-ring-racks-and-las-vegas/id1732763071?i=1000754451387) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/22fobbc0L0Lv4BWOHNOuDw) · or press play above. ## About this episode Season 2 opens with a proper catch-up. We spent the missing year turning the business inside out and shifting back towards our roots, away from chasing scale and back towards making things we actually enjoy playing with. Part of that was a serious leap into 3D printing. We built a print farm from scratch, learned to print the TPU nobody else wants to touch, and it gave us control over quality, speed and new ideas. The ring racks sold out their entire first run in a single day. There is the small matter of tariffs turning a quick job into a three-month platform move, and the fact that we turned 21 in September. Then the announcement: E-Stim Systems is going back to America, this time to Altitude Intimates in Las Vegas, possibly the largest adult trade show in the US. A British bloke who makes electric sex toys rocking up in Vegas is a headline that writes itself, and this one takes us right back to where the business started. ## In this episode - Why the podcast went quiet for a year - Turning the business inside out and heading back to our roots - Building a 3D print farm from scratch, and printing the TPU nobody likes - Ring racks, bumpers, holsters and glow-in-the-dark spacers - When tariffs turned a quick job into a full web store rebuild - 21 years in, and the competitor who said we would not last - The announcement: Las Vegas and Altitude Intimates - Who is coming, and who is holding the fort back home ## Full transcript It's been over a year. I know. Running a business got in the way of talking about running a business, which honestly is probably the most on-brand thing I've ever done. If you've been listening since season one, thank you for sticking around. If you're new here, brilliant timing because something's happening in a few weeks that could be back in front of this microphone, and I think you're going to want to come along for the ride. I'm Wayne, I make electric sex toys for a living, and we've been doing it for the last 21 years, and we're just getting started. So what have we actually been doing for the last year or so? The honest answer is we turned the business inside out. We took a long hard look at where we're going and where we'd come from, and decided to shift back closer to our roots. Less chasing scale, more focus on using our kit creatively. The aim was to get back to being the company that makes brilliant things, rather than trying to become the next Amazon. Too many companies these days are box shifters, concentrating on profits, concentrating on how many units they shipped out the door. We wanted to move back to creating fun ideas, things that we enjoyed playing with. Part of that was a serious leap into 3D printing, not just dabbling. We built a print farm from scratch. Well, if not a print farm, then a small holding. And I won't pretend that that was straightforward. Getting a print farm up and running, dialing in quality, figuring out what works and what absolutely doesn't. It's a learning curve. In fact, it's a major learning curve. But we also managed to choose materials, TPU, that nobody likes to print, as it's simply too difficult for most people and too hard. Actually, it's not too hard because it's quite a soft material, and that's the problem. But what it did give us was control. Control over quality, control over production speed, control over the ability to try new ideas without waiting months for a manufacturer to come back to us. Some of these new ideas landed brilliantly. The ring racks. If you haven't seen them, go and look at them on the website. They sold out the entire first run in a single day. A single day. That's a pretty clear signal that we're onto something. Created bumpers for the 2B, holsters, plug-nuts, coloured spacers, even some glow-in-the-dark ones. All have been keeping our printers busy. Some of our ideas are still in the development phase, but we love the whole process of test and develop, test and develop. And we keep going until we get things right. 2025 also saw us having the fun of having to deal with global changes, the word tariffs, which resulted in major changes over the web store. A quick project that turned into three months of moving platforms, rebuilding sites, tearing hair out, but the results have turned out to be more popular than we expected. We love our new site, and hopefully you do too. September also saw us turn 21. Where are all the years gone? 21 is quite a milestone, especially in this industry. Two decades of making electric sex toys and still going. I'm quietly proud of that. We were once told by a competitor that we couldn't sustain our products or our pricing. Well, sorry guys, we're still here. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the podcast kept getting bumped to the bottom of the to-do list. I'm not apologizing for it. We built something worth building. But I am back, and I've got a good reason. So here's what's It's happening. E-Stim Systems is going back to America. We've done the ANME show in Burbank twice, so this isn't the first time across the pond, and we are going back to Amy later in the year. But this is different. This feels different. Altitude Intimates, Las Vegas. Possibly the largest adult trade show in the US. That's a different conversation entirely. And yes, I'm fully aware that a British guy who makes electric sex toys rocking up in Las Vegas is a headline that practically writes itself. To understand why this trip feels like such a big deal, you need to understand where E-Stim Systems actually began. We started at small fetish fairs. That's genuinely where this business was born. A table, some products, and a lot of explaining to do. We'd meet people, demonstrate the kit, watch their faces go from sceptical to curious to, and I've seen this expression hundreds of times. Oh my god. Oh God. Then we'd sell what we had, drive back to the workshop, build some more, and do it all again the following weekend. At events we'd love to chat, sell, and then we'd spend most of our profits buying toys from other vendors. We were having fun, that's genuinely all it was. A group of friends who found something they loved and wanted to share it. We never sat down and said, let's build a business. We just kept making things because people kept wanting them. The business grew over us, the business grew around us. The business grew. Our products. These were never boxes made to look pretty. We loved the durable industrial look. And it appears, so do our customers. These were boxes made for fun, to do something, to genuinely change the way people experience sensation. How do we know? Well, we played with them. That's where the designs came from. But as we sold more, we had to make more. And to make more, we had to become more like a business, and less like friends having fun on a Sunday afternoon. We grew online, we scaled up, and the shows fell away. Somewhere along the line we started concentrating more on efficient production than on enjoying ourselves. And I think we lost something in that. Going to altitude feels like going back to our roots. Except instead of a table at a fetish fair in the UK, it's Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada, the entertainment capital of the world. But fundamentally, it's the same idea, showing people what our kit can do for them and their customers. Just in a slightly bigger room? Now, I'm not doing this alone. First, and I could hardly leave her behind, that would probably result in divorce. Csz my wife is coming. Yep, she's my wife, she's my business partner in more ways than one. We're also being joined in Vegas by Ian and Rachel from Joanne's E-Stim Emporium. Some of you out there will already know them. They've been part of the E-Stim community for quite a while. They know our kit inside out, both from a retail perspective, and let's say a more personal one. Rachel is an absolute devotee of the ElectroPebble, and Ian loves the 2B, and they're genuinely brilliant people to have on the stand. They're also going to keep me from embarrassing myself too much. I just need to avoid spikes and biscuits. Those of you who know, no. I'll say no more. Question that might be asked, why bring outsiders into the company on a trade show? Well, unfortunately not everyone on our team is comfortable with the current administration in the US. And I understand and support that. So K will be back in the UK supporting our day-to-day operations. Are we showing anything new? No comment. But I'm not going to Vegas empty-handed, and I'll leave it at that. We were once accused of never innovating, and honestly, that's stung, because we do innovate, that's all we do. We're also very deliberate about it. We don't release things until they're ready. Ideas need time to mature, like a fine wine, or a very good cheese. And after 21 years, we're still finding new ways to play. We've got quite a few new things in the pipeline, and when the timing is right, you'll understand exactly why this trip matters. But for now, watch this space. We leave for Vegas in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to bring you along for the ride. I'm going to show you as much of it as I can. Dispatches from the show floor, the good stuff, the chaotic stuff, probably some jet lag. Maybe a bad decision or two, hopefully not, but it is Vegas, and I will be staying away from the slot machines and the little chapel of love. If you want the behind-the-scenes stuff before anyone else gets it, join the Facebook group, follow us on social media. E-Stim Systems isn't too difficult to find these days. Otherwise, subscribe wherever you're listening to this, and I'll see you on the next one. It's good to be back. Thanks for listening. Bye. ```json { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https://imakesextoys.me/#wayne_allen_52a5b5b413" }, "dateModified": "2026-07-02T19:28:00Z", "datePublished": "2026-03-10T20:27:31Z", "description": "Season 2 of I Make Sex Toys is back. 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