Istan Boys
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Turkish men aren't technically Arab, but they share many of the same qualities and features - their darker skin and hair, their hairy bodies, their sexy brown eyes. Being the gateway to and from the Mediterranean Sea made Turkey an important point of commerce. This mixing and co-mingling of a variety of people and cultures has, over the centuries, created a very exotic and striking population of men. Istanboys puts the focus on Turkish men from guys in their younger 20s, some almost twink-like, to more mature and muscular 30-year-olds. And there's a variety of action from solo jack-off to hardcore gay sex.
The Istanboys member area didn't thrill me. For a start, the navigation is all accomplished with dropdown menus in frames, although if you choose the selection that says IstanBoys Content, you will be taken to all the photo sets. Then there's the list of updates on the member home page. There were 2 things of note about the updates list - one is that there are no videos listed out of the 32 most recent updates, and the other is that there are no dates on the updates, so there's no way to know when this site last added content. Another thing you'll want to know is that the links to "Home" around the site won't take you to the member home page - they'll take you to the index for the section you're in. If you want to head back to the member home, click the Istanboys logo at the top left of every page on the frame.
There are a good amount of non-exclusive photo sets inside Istanboys, and there may be some exclusive sets, but I'm not sure. Many of the pics sets are sets that I've seen in other sites with the guys listed with different names and their ethnicity given as latino or italian. Photo quality varies here, ranging from amateur to good, and some sets being pretty well lit and others not too well lit. The pics vary is size from 479x600 to 796x1200. In some galleries, you click a thumb for a bigger pic and click the bigger pic for an even bigger version of that pic.
The videos are listed by format, and there are 4 different formats listed with different amounts in each format, the most vids being listed in Win Media - 32 vids - and the least in Quicktime - 25. The videos here are on the small side, being shown at 320x240, and quality isn't too great with a bitrate of around 220k. These are definitely not videos you'll want to enlarge to full screen. The movies are each offered in several clips with no full scenes available. On the other hand, they're downloadable and don't use DRM. One thing to watch out for while you're checking out the videos - the Turkish VOD leads to pay per view videos outside the site.
Istanboys offers their members 1 bonus site, Maximo Latino, plus a variety of gay niched feeds. And while Maximo Latino doesn't feature Turkish men, there are some similarities between Turks and Latinos. The feeds don't feature any Arabic or Turkish guys, but there are asian, black and latin guys. There are also links to newsgroups of photos plus offsite tourism and hotel links to Turkey.
What Istanboys mostly has to offer is the fantasy of Turkish men and guys who fit the description - swarthy, dark hair and eyes, and often hairy bodies. Overall I felt let down by Istanboys. For one thing, the small video section hasn't grown since our last review 2 years ago, and for another the vids are small and not good quality. For another, at least some of the guys in the pic sets aren't actually Turkish and the sets aren't exclusive. I wasn't thrilled with the site navigation, which is on dropdowns and uses frames - and includes pay per view on the menus. And last, although I can't be sure, it doesn't appear that the site updates - it hasn't grown much in the last 2 years. The bottom line - if you like the guys on the tour of Istanboys, you may find the site worth joining, but don't expect much in the way of videos or updates.
Things we liked:
- Videos are downloadable
- No DRM used
- Reasonable subscription price
Things we didn't like:
- No dates on updates - site does not seem to have updated in 2 years
- Video section is pretty small
- Videos aren't very high quality and are small
- Site navigation issues
- Misleading links to pay per view in dropdown menus
Membership prices: ( billing by CCBill )
- Monthly: $19.95 (recurring at $14.95 monthly)
- Quarterly: $49.95 (non recurring)
Reviewed on 2008-09-05
Click here to visit Istan Boys
Bolt Upwright | 24 Nov 2007
My rating:
Finding the elusive Middle-Eastern man is a challenge and this is one of the best sites. The guys are mostly hot and authentic but it's pretty vanilla for the poses. Also see HairyTurks.com for as real as it gets. BerlinMale.com also has Turkish men of note.
Raj | 02 Apr 2007
My rating:
This is one of the only sites I've found where you can see Arab boys in the buff, but the fact that they don't have any kind of regular update schedule makes me kind of wary. The quality and size of their content could stand to be better, too.
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