Site Reviews

The Colt website has a fresh, updated design and now provides members with almost five times more video than it had previously. The COLT legend goes back to 1967, when a New York illustrator by the name of Rip Colt established the studio to provide real life versions of his drawings of cowboys, leathermen, bodybuilders and other icons of masculinity.

The masculine male remains important at Colt Studio today, but the "old school" illustrations are found on calendars and Colt playing cards, while searing, beautifully shot videos now take center stage. Just to keep things fresh, the reinvigorated Buckshot video line mixes the classic muscle hunks with younger, slimmer guys, including some genuine twinks. Changing with the times while maintaining it's 40 year reputation, Colt remains one of the premier studios in gay porn.

Tour

The Colt tour is mirror style. Click on the buttons for "Men" or "Live", or "Movies", and you'll be taken to the complete indexes, allowing you to see the listing of all models and movies available with your membership. In the "Movies" area, you'll see a "softcore trailer" for a number of the videos. There are also sample images of each model for you to preview.

Navigation

The Colt site has a sleek, contemporary and consistent design. Bold links take you to the main content areas: Men, Live and Movies. Navigation within each of the content areas is easy enough once you adjust to the cutting-edge navigation of the Flash-based galleries. There are numerous search tools to find exactly the man or title you are looking for.

Content

In the past Colt Studio featured exclusively heroic, muscular men. These were large-bodied guys with impassive expressions who fit a very particular image that was a Colt trademark. These days, along with the classic Colt Men such as Carlo Masi, Arpad Miklos and the 11 inch splendor of Karim, you'll find a range of types, still favoring masculine guys and situations, but including younger models like the juicy Tory Mason, super-cute Kurt Wild, and twink-like Justin Burkshire . These broader types allow Colt more flexibility and creativity in what they bring to the viewer.

Since our last review, Colt has continued to increase the amount of recent and classic video scenes available for members. There are now over 425 scenes from 85 of the studio's famous full-length videos -- a mix of older and more recent titles. These scenes average 20 minutes in length.

The video is in Flash format and note that it streams only, playing in a small 300x225 pixel window which can be resized to twice the size, but with a noticable loss of quality.


The original COLT videos all share top notch production standards: beautiful lighting, multiple poses and camera angles, lingering close-ups and gushing cumshots. Some of the earliest titles were shot on real film -- if anyone remembers what that is. They have a rich quality that's not seen very much anymore. However, you'll have to rent or buy the DVDs to get that quality as the small Flash videos cannot compare.

The Live Men section of COLT is the truly exclusive part of the site. There are live sex shows about once a week featuring some of the hottest current models on the Colt team. At review time, only a half dozen of the live shows were archived. Colt could definitely do better here by offering a more extensive archive viewable in a larger window.

The "Colt Men" area gives you access to photosets of over 600 Colt men along with their stats and Colt videography. There's a gallery for every scene that the model has done for Colt, but the number of pics in each gallery varies wildly, from 10 to hundreds. The photos are high quality, though not large. There is a neat zoom feature, but you lose quality when you utilize it.

The COLT Studio Store offers COLT photosets, publications and videos, along with clothing, watches and other branded items. You can't miss the store as there are copious cross-links to Colt products throughout the site. There's also a blog and forum to keep you posted on the latest Colt goings-on.

Summing Up

For the monthly Colt membership what you're really getting is a chance to experience the Colt legend, while also tapping into many recent titles from both Colt and the Buckshot DVD lines. While there is much more streaming video and photo content in the site than before and the added bonus of occassional live shows, the technical quality of the Flash videos leaves you wanting more.