ADDITIONAL REVIEW POSTED 1/9/09
guest review by Isambard

What more can one say about one of the biggest and longest established spanking sites?

The number of models is huge - over sixty currently available (although some are no longer working for the site), and updates take place three times a week without fail. Each update has a film clip, available in various resolutions, and a set of pics, available for download individually or in a zipped file. The models include some of the biggest names in the spanko scene on both sides of the pond: Samantha Woodley, Abigail Whittaker, Michaela McGowan, Sierra Salem, Niki Flynn, Leia-Ann Woods, Amelia Jane Rutherford, Amber "Pixie" Wells..... Fresh talent has recently been added. The site can be searched by model name and by theme. The one thing I might wish for in terms of talent is a little more variety in age and ethnicity. Like the BBC (in the words of its former director general), Firm Hand is "horribly white" - and mainly rather youthful. It would be nice to see some talent of other ethnic origins, and perhaps some of the fine ladies of more mature years who grace the American scene (e.g. Mesdames Fonda, Burns/Daniels and Scott).

In terms of venues, the site does its best to boost the flagging transatlantic airline market, with American models appearing in the UK and British models in the USA. Scenarios are varied, with shoots set in domestic, scholastic and office situations.

In addition to the vids and pics, there are features including a members' forum, spanking in the movies and real-life spanking stories.

Price? Well, here's an oddity! The site offers various options, up to six months for USD89.95. I presume that what Yanks see is what they get. However, the billing company (CC Bill) detects the customer's IP and defaults to their local currency. I was a bit taken aback by the price in pounds, even in sterling's current state, and checked the dollar price - still higher than USD 89. CC Bill and Firm Hand each blamed the other for this anomaly. The good news is that Firm Hand satisfied this customer by offering a few days extra subscription for the few bucks more I spent.

UPDATED REVIEW POSTED 5/9/08
By John O'Connell

It's been four years since we've reviewed this site, so I guess it's about time we repaid them a visit. As with many long lasting member sites, improvements are a must as technology changes and becomes more available and less costly. Firm Hand has done that and continued to provide quality material to the members that sign up.

Over the last few years, Firm Hand has added a few new "mainstay" models that are a pure delight to watch. The first is Samantha Woodley. This girl is just fabulous and can easily be called one of the top spanking stars in the industry today. She is a beautiful girl that can turn on the charm or the attitude in the snap of a finger. She plays each part like a Hollywood film and gives memorable performances every time out. Plus, she can take a pretty nasty spanking too. Samantha is featured in a variety of series, including special runs with other spanking models. Be it a flight attendant or a schoolgirl, Samantha is brilliant every time.

Another model that has made frequent appearances is Amelia Jane Rutherford. This blonde is quite attractive and can also take one hell of a spanking. In addition, her acting skills are none too shabby either. I don't know how Firm Hand does it, but they manage to find some great looking girls that not only can take a hard spanking, but can act too.

Firm Hand has continued along the path of variety and severity that they started so many years ago. You will find a lot of different scenes utilizing a miriad of instruments. Some punishments are over jeans and others are over the bare. The type of punishment does fit the scenario most of the time. Video clips are still in Real Media format running at 700 kbps. The quality is decent and is better than it was the last time the site was reviewed. However, it's not the best on the market. No doubt, there are still many on slower connections and huge files are not for everyone. At 32 MB for a 6 or 7 minute clip, that is a very reasonable size. Even on dialup, it might take a little time, but it's not impossible. However, as more and more switch to high speed internet, I would like to see more sites offer higher resolution media. Even if you have to have two sets of clip, which some sites do offer. This is not to say that the clips at Firm Hand are terrible to look at. They are very good for the compression used and hopefully soon they will offer some high resolution media in addition to what they have now.

So even after 4 years since the last review, Firm Hand is still doing it's part to provide quality material to the spanking world. At 24.95 a month with discounts for multi-month sign ups, the site still offers a lot of content for a competitive price.

GUEST REVIEW: Reviewed by Ludwig (first published at Ludwig's Rohrstock-Palast http://rohrstockpalast.blogspot.com) Posted to Spreview on 9/12/08

Featuring an archive that goes back to 2002 and over 700 film clips at the time of this writing, Firm Hand is one of the grand old spanking sites on the net. It recently underwent an overhaul resulting in easier navigation and a more polished look. With a large number of different models, punishment scenarios and implements, most CP enthusiasts should find something to their liking amidst the tons of content.

Firm Hand Spanking is updated three times per week. As of May this year, every new clip is available in five formats: Windows Media Video and Real Media in two different quality levels each, and a version for the iPod. The high quality .wmv has a resolution of 640 x 480 and a bitrate of 1500 kbps. Older videos are in .rm format only, the resolution ranges from 640 x 480 down to 352 x 240 for the earliest ones. Every clip also comes with a photo gallery, and there is a section of standalone "Star Photo-stories" without accompanying movies.

There are three main paths to surf the content: a long "All Movies" index which lists everything chronologically, an "All Models" index with link pages to all the shoots a girl has done, and a series of themed sections with titles like "English school" or "Pageant Punishments". In addition, you get a "Candid Confessions" page with about a dozen video interviews and another section with a similar number of written "Firm Hand Star Profiles".

Two American models by the names of Shannon Carson and Amy Denison used to be the most regular performers, with several of my favourite Firm Hand scenes between them. But the latter is officially retired now and the mainstay of the site these days is the lovely Samantha Woodley. Abigail Whittaker and Amelia-Jane Rutherford have added frequent and hot contributions over the past two years, I like both of their work here a lot. Other spanking regulars like Leia-Ann Woods, Kailee Robinson, Niki Flynn, Pixie Wells and Sierra Salem also make appearances. In total, there are some sixty models in the archives at this time, ranging from scene stars to unknowns.

Most clips are between 5 and 10 minutes long, a brief exposition followed by a punishment of some sort. Instruments include the hand, strap, paddle, cane, pretty much everything that classic spanking scenarios have to offer. On the jeans, the panties, the bare - there is fairly good variety here, also in the type of scenario. Scenes include MF and FF, the severity is light to moderate.

I really enjoyed the "themed" sections because most of them bring out the personality and the personal fantasies of a model in an interesting way, or simply because they are inventive. "OTK Air" is a video series featuring Miss Wooley and Michaela McGowen as flight attendants. Leia-Ann stars in a sequence of "Military Discipline" clips. Amelia-Jane does some ballet-inspired scenes. Two sexpots going by the handles of Sofia Celli and Cassandra Campbell thrash each other in several "College Girl Discipline" movies.

Firm Hand doesn't have the oomph of the Eastern European producers, but quite a few of the clips delight my inner sadist simply because of the pained reactions of the victims. Miss Denison and Miss Carson both get some interesting thrashings, with good chemistry. A girl named Lane Chapman has an edgy encounter with a cane-wielding mistress, resulting in real tears... And so forth. Not every scene is outstanding (at several hundred videos, that would be a lot to ask), but there are true gems to be found if you look for them. A members' forum, a collection of "Spanking Tales" short stories and a section with "Spanking in the Movies" movie stills round out the archives. In sum, well worth checking out.

The Firm Hand website had grown considerably since my last review. In total between the clips from their films and the original members content, there are currently 67 models that receive some form of punishment. 67. That's rather impressive. And we're talking some really attractive women here. In recent times they have added such models as Cassandra Campbell, Sophia Celli, and Lucy Armstrong. We're talking some serious talent here folks. Gorgeous and able to withstand a sound spanking. The site has also approved somewhat in appearance. Either via email or from the site directly, Firm Hand offers a newsletter style update sheet of what's been updated. The site has direct links within the newsletter to bring you right to those sections (the one that's within the members area obviously). This is a rather nice feature to view what has been updated, not just by a few words and a link, but by an complete explanation and photographs. I don't think there is any other site that goes this in depth with their update section. In addition, there is still a regular update page that simply lists hyperlinks to each updated area and spans back several months. So, if you were a member in more recent times and returned, you can know exactly what had been updated in your absence. Something else to tickle your fancy is that Firm Hand's site now updates twice per week. Instead of seeing the preview photos of a new set and then having to wait a whole week to see the video, you now only have to wait a few days. The Firm Hand movie preview section has been expounded upon and features far more preview clips than before. So many, that they pretty much show you the entire film. If you were thinking about purchasing some Firm Hand films, this part alone would be worth it for the in depth previews that you would obtain. However, the clips from the videos are only one part of the members area. There is a special collection series that features 23 different women at present. Each has multiple skits with both a photo set and a video clip. The clips vary in length, but are at least over three minutes long. The clips also of a good quality and a manageable file size. One thing that was fixed over the older clips is the sound ratio. Before, even if the sound on your computer was low, the clip sound would blow you off your chair. That has been scaled back to a more normal level. The severe discipline series has 2 women featured at this time and a new section recently opened. The college girl discipline section features beautiful blonde Cassandra and beautiful brunette Sophia as college room mates. For various reasons, one much spank the other. In the opening series of the section, both girls were ordered by the dorm mother to either be spanked or pay an extra $60 for not taking care of their room. First Sophia spanked Cassandra on the bare bottom. Then next time the section was updated, Cassandra spanked Sophia. These were good hard spankings and once they were finished, they had to show the dorm mother their red behinds. Spanking in the movies features 16 different main stream films that have spanking scenes within them. The content varies from a few photos or screen captures to actual video clips. Real Life Spankings has 29 actual accounts of famous spankings or famous people that have said they were spanked or like to be spanked. The content for each person varies from candid and glamour photographs, artist conceptions, actual articles and stories, and even a re-enactment or two. Firm Hand Stars features special photo series with over a dozen of Firm Hand's hottest stars. There is a bonus area with 3 special clips that were shot just for Firm Hand members. In the Profiles section, 11 Firm Hand stars sit down for personal interviews. There is a video library with quick links and thumbnails to all of the clips available on the site. Add in a message board, chat room, forum, and polls and this is quite a entertaining site. At just under twenty dollars per month, this is a pretty good deal. If you join for the 3 or 6 month packages, you also save money over the base price. If you are a fan of Firm Hand or just like to see pretty girls spanked, then I'd recommend checking out this site's preview area at the very least.

Upon entering the Firm Hand member's area, you will be given 2 basic columns to choose from. The one on the left features photos and clips from their productions available for sale, while the column on the right features goodies not related to their films. First, let me say that the navigation for this site is very simple and easy, so novice internet goers won't be confused. The only warning is to make sure you read what's in each section, you can be fooled thinking there is not much in a particular area, but by clicking on hyperlinked text, sometimes you find more good stuff.

In the "left column" you'll find a link for each video they have currently for sale. Clicking on the link, will bring you to the video specific page. Each video has between 3 and 5 video clips, along with between 100 and 200 photos. The video clips on this site are all in Real Media format, with some being larger in resolution than others. The larger ones are approximately 355X222 and all of the photos are 640X480 in resolution. Some photos are sharper than others, but this comes with the nature of the beast trying to get good quality and low file size all in one package. What's nice about this side of the site is there are ample photos and video clip time to get an idea if you like the video enough to purchase it. In truth, if you are interested in a bunch of their videos but don't want to buy all your choices right now, this isn't a bad option to get a better preview. The clips are roughly 90 seconds long, so you get at least 4 - 5 minutes of video from each production.

Although there is a decent amount of content in the other section, it's always the special members stuff that I am more interested in. Mainly, because this is the stuff that keeps you coming back. Those little things not available anywhere else. The "right column" is packed with really cool stuff that kept me busy for a while. The first selection is Special Collections, which currently has 4 women (5th coming next update) with their own video clips, not related to any of Firm Hand's productions. Amy Denison has 2 video clip features and 100+ photos, Catherine Corbett has 10 video features and 500+ photos, Lauren Mitchell has 1 video feature and around 100 photos, and Carina West has 1 video feature and around 100 photos. The video clips are for the most part 2-3 minutes in length and are of the larger resolution size. This is an active area, so updates are added on a consistent basis. The next selection in the "right column" is Spanking in the Movies. This section lists several movies that have spanking in them, or references to spanking. Now, this is one of those sections that are a lot deeper than they appear. At first I thought it was just a list, but there are other goodies further in. If you click on the title of the video, you will be brought to another page. The films they list carry at least one video clip a piece, if not several, and there are quite a few still shots taken from each selection. The nice thing is Firm Hand has chosen some lesser known titles with some really good scenes in them. Not the same films you've seen hundreds of times.

The next selection is Real Life Spankings. Here you will find 16 accounts of actual spanking from real people. These are not stories from you or I, but from actresses or people that have had their stories in the news. Clicking on a particular person will bring up additional information, newspaper clippings, and photos of that person. I thought the scans of the actual newspaper and magazine articles were a nice touch. Again, you need to pay attention, as at first I clicked on one person and thought there was just one photo. Then I realized there was another link that lead to another 20+ photos. When done with that, you can move onto Firm Hand Stars. Here you will find 8 spanking stars with their own little areas. You get bio information as well as many photos for each person. Most of the photos are non-nude and are presented like a model session. I thought that was pretty nice and professional. Yes, we all want to see the nudes, but for some reason I thought that moved this site up in the respectable category a notch. The site also has a Bonus Movies section with 2 small clips shot just for viewers and a Bonus Photos sections with extra photos, including captures from the 2 clips in the bonus movies area. There is also a Video Archive which allows you to see all the video clips on the site available for viewing. This is a nice short cut if you just want to start watching clips. These include both out takes from videos and the special member features. To round out the site, there is a members message board and chat room.

I have to say, this is a pretty nice site. It's easy to navigate, the file sizes are relatively small for quick downloads, the resolution sizes are acceptable (a little larger on the out takes would be better), and there is a good amount of files and features to keep you busy for a while. The price is also nice, at $14.95 a month with discounts for multi-month signups. The site is updated once a week on Sundays with additional photos and/or videos. If you're looking for something fresh but don't want to spend $25-30 or if you are interested in buying some of their videos and are not sure which ones are best for you, then you should check out this site.