Preview: Following an almost religious-looking entry page, Manifest Men opens on what appears to be a very well-designed, professional, easy-access home page. At first glance it looks sophisticated and informative, suggesting an efficient website experience. But appearances might be deceiving. There is no separate tour link. So first, check out the preview video at top, labeled accurately, Compilation Preview. It’s a worthwhile, mucho muscle, two-minute tease that’s large and sharp and seriously sensuous. Adjacent are picture links to one-minute preview vids for the Top Rated, Most Viewed, and Staff Favorite videos. Well, anyway, two out of three – the fave just defaults to the main preview vid. Big pic links for the most recent video and photoset go to their respective index pages. A similar Newest Manifest Man pic at right links to some version of his model page – clicking on vid links get another video page with a black bar across his face – what’s with that? Up-to-date site news and recent comments are also at right. Mid-page announces the upcoming live show. Touring via toplinks takes you to the model index, video index, photo index, show index, and MMTV index, whatever that is. Additional stuff: sorts are available, and site updates are also Twittered.
Joining: Did you notice on the upcoming show promo – "free for premium members"? Joining begins on the home page with Standard vs. Premium memberships – Click to Learn More. There’s a big difference. Preview vids only vs. all videos; read forum [?] and comments vs. post items; no shows vs. live shows; download pix vs. download zips; and more. The Standard is listed as a free membership, the Premium I guess is the regular paid membership - Premium is unlimited viewing of all content, Standard is limited access. They also list pay-per-minute VOD and Mac-related pay-to-download. Enter username, password and email and click an option. Then on the next page choose a billing option – credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, JCB), phone billing, EU Direct Pay, and EU Debit Billing. All options are processed through CCBill. You can translate to 8 other languages and convert to 5 other currencies if you like. Rates are $29.95 for 30 days, recurring same, and $99.99 for 180 days (6 months), non-recurring. Paying on your phone bill is for land lines only, and costs $34.95 for 30 days, non-recurring. EU Direct is €34.95 for 30 days, non-recurring, and €99.99 for 180 days, non-recurring. EU Debit is €29.95 for 30 days, recurring, €34.95 for 30 days, non-recurring, and €99.99 for 180 days, non-recurring. The pay-per-minute, video-on-demand, and pay-to-download options involve purchasing credits.
Inside: The members area is identical to the preview, except the right side material moves up replacing the join info. The 4 preview vids – comp, rated, viewed, faved (not) - are still there for some reason – kind of a waste of space. In fact, most of the .jpg)
home page is only for show at this point. Content access is via toplinks. The Manifest Men is the model index, and it’s really impressive. It appears to default to rating order, from most of 5 stars back. At 35 per page, there are 65 guys on a couple of pages. And these men define the word hunk. Individual model pages are topped with a visually impressive full-width shot of the man, followed by a description, body stats, viewer stats (interesting), and comments. At left are tabbed sections for picture links to videos (default) and photosets. Those are all dated, and some of each are divided up into parts. Even the picture links will tempt you to proceed. Unfortunately, 25 of the models do not have body stats – including even the site owner and star Vin Marco, as well as porn-star hunks like Zeb Atlas and Johnny Castle. Is it that hard to get this basic information for the site?
Video Gallery is the video index, at 39 per page, on 8 pages, for 284 total, in date order, back to January 2007. Again the pic links are a mix of non-X and XXX, but totally hot, .jpg)
a mix of posing, jerking (both meanings), gym, shower, indoors, outdoors, studio, bedroom, and beach. The individual video pages are a bit off - they’re topped by a medium pic and smaller thumbs, inexplicably with a dark gray bar across. Those pix don’t link to the photos but are just another link to stream the video. There’s a description below, along with viewing stats, add a comment box (but comments are only on the model page), and the time of the video. There is a Watch Now link to stream the video. And there is a Purchase Credits link for "HD MP4 and iPod downloads."
Photo Sets is the next content category. These index pix are even more sexy as they’re from the professionally taken photo-shoots. They show at 40 per page, on 4 pages, for 159 total, in date order, back to December 2007. A large page-width image tops the page (not the same as on the model page), followed by thumbs for the photo-set images, all on one page. Comment submission and viewing stats are below. .jpg)
There’s a link to download a "High-Res Zip." Click the thumb to enlarge, click outside the image to close, click embedded Next and Prev links to advance. Thumbs are cropped, so expect dick on the big views.
Next is Live and Archived Shows. The back episodes are 32 from the past year. At top is a countdown to the next live appearance. These are the interactive live cam shows. Show frequency is not stated, and looks irregular. The company also has another live site Manifest Muscle, that I guess is a chat with the models site, and not included with membership to Manifest Men. Finally, there’s MMTV which, without any explanation, looks like a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos, ten of them, including shaving. At top are the sort boxes. Sort models, videos, or photos separately, in order of ratings, release (date), views, favorites, and comments. You can also sort alphabetically, back and forth. Reverse alphabetical doesn’t work on models, and comment sort doesn’t seem to do anything. At bottom, it says "Last Updated 1/22/10" and I’m writing this a month later.
Tech Stuff: First, they offer their videos for streaming only - no downloads. And here’s where it gets dicey. Between the previews and regular videos, I can watch two, then it stops working (streaming). It’s probably my computer, as usual, but I tried it at home as well, and the same thing happened. Their help page is helpful for billing and membership issues, but for technical stuff; it’s random and vague, and what they do say seems irrelevant to what’s on the site. They mention Windows Media and Quicktime – I assume the latter is for that Purchase Credits link for "HD MP4 and iPod downloads" thing, whatever that is. 
But WMV – I don’t see it. Maybe it’s some sort of Flash issue. Before joining, I’d recommend trying to run several preview vids to make sure you don’t have the problem. Or you should have the most juiced up computer possible, with every viewer known to man. Or you could email them asking what their technical viewing requirements are – they sure don’t list them anywhere. So bottom line, I won’t be specifically reviewing their vids. When I have managed to get one or two to work, they show in a full-width-screen viewer. There are 4 speed settings, low, medium, high, and HD, but the screen size remains the same, it’s just the picture quality that varies.
Photos also view in some sort of Flash thing. However, unlike the same system on every other site I’ve seen, I can’t cursor to the middle of the image where the Next and Prev don’t show, to save the pic or check the size under properties. Therefore, if it’s the same for you, you can’t save the pix individually. But there is a zip download for the set. There’s no file size or time left on the download prompt box, but ones I sampled only took about a minute, more or less, to a few minutes for the bigger sets. Gallery size varies, in the range of a few dozen images per set. Photos are larger in the downloaded set, at least for the newer ones, they blow up to a screen-filling 853x1280. There is no slide-show function on-site.
Camerawork: I’ll just generalize here vis-à-vis the vids. The main difference between the vids and the photos is that the vids are more x-rated. The models are free-er on ‘film’ to explore their bodies, and well, bluntly, to jerk off. The photos are more about erotic posing. According to what info I’ve found, they use multiple cameras for filming, a single camera for photo-shoots. Vin Marco himself does much of the still photography. There’s one shoot on the beach that’s available in video, where he’s the naked photographer. But at least we see that they use professional high-end cameras and lighting. And Vin is a fantastic professional photographer indeed. The pix are just amazing. Manifest Men has their own studio loft, where they shoot in a variety of sets, locations, and backdrops. They even have access to shooting on the roof, for great sunset shots. Outdoors, they have filmed and shot at a nearby deserted nude beach, and in the desert as well. They’ve also had as their videographer, the porn star Adam Killian – he pops into frame once in a while, especially in live show archived videos. So if you want terrific photography and videography, you’ll find it on Manifest Men.
The Guys: Hunk: A sexually attractive man with a well-developed physique. Manifest Men nails the dictionary definition 110%. They are obviously extremely selective, and search out the handsomest, sexiest body-beautiful men they can find for the site. It's not so much a bodybuilder site but a sex site with bodybuilders. Muscles are worked to their peak, and the men are stripped down for ultra-erotic display. Maybe because posing is such a fundamental part of the bodybuilding experience, the studs of Manifest Men know how to work the camera, and work it all for you. So along with the talents of their lensmen, the photographs alone are enough to get off on. And on video, these horny hunks let loose with their masturbatory fantasies. It will definitely be easy to find favorites among the stable of studs, or maybe it'll be hard to choose from the delicious buff buffet. From competition-level to 'merely' body-beautiful physiques, Manifest Men offers model diversity on various levels - buff porn stars, pro/am bodybuilders, American, Latin, European, racial and ethnic variety, younger and older. Muscle-hunk porn pro's include Matthew Rush, Zeb Atlas, and Johnny Castle, shown here like nowhere else. Mid '90's star Aaron Austin appears on site showing off his built-up bod. And of course we have to mention amazing site owner Vin Marco who works both sides of the camera, luckily for us! Check out his nude photo-shoot on the beach. All of the guys stand out in one way or another [yeah, their hard cocks stand out too, ha ha]. Some faves include the sensuous South American stud Alejandro de La Guardia, the big-dicked Damon Danilo, their first site exclusive Ben Kieren, big blonde Nate Christianson, hairy-chested and totally ripped Vic Rocco, romantic and long-haired Giovanni Volta, young cam-stud Seth Cameron, tan and smooth Cody Miller, ebony super-stud Sean Jones, and young physique-pup Alain Lamas. Dozens more Manifest Men will definitely tantalize and tempt you.
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