Tenga unveils rocket, prepares for blastoff this summer

Tenga, the designer Japanese adult brand who reinvented masturbation toys for men, has extraterrestrial ambitions.

As reported earlier this year, Tenga hopes to launch a branded rocket into space in partnership with Takafumi Horie’s civilian spaceflight company, Interstellar Technologies.

This is an insanely expensive publicity campaign — the latest in a long-running series of original stunts and gimmicks by the adult brand to attract attention. It has certainly succeeded this time, generated a ton of ink for its efforts.

The actual 10-meter (33-feet) rocket was unveiled last week. Painted red (of course!) and with the brand name and slogan (“Love and Freedom”), it will launch sometime this summer from a spaceport site in Hokkaido. Let’s be honest, it looks phallic — but also so cool, it could almost pass for a massive Tenga adult toy itself.

After flying up and technically reaching space, the rocket will release its payload: a Tenga-shaped pod with written messages. A Tenga Robo figure will also apparently be jettisoned from the rocket to return to Earth safely.

The spaceflight, which is nominally to record data about space for use in developing an astronaut-friendly sex toy (Space Tenga), has not gone entirely to plan. The tie-in crowdfunding campaign, for instance, fell far short of its relatively modest target, which hardly inspires confidence. Does this mean they don’t have enough funds?

Let’s hope the actual launch goes off without a hitch.