Being that nature is the mother of all inventions, it's not surprising to find technology modeled after animals! From the frog looks of the Porsche 911 sports car to the Tenikle 2 tripod, which is a flexible tripod with a starfish body and octopus tentacles.
Tripods comes in all shapes and sizes, and with different types of construction, namely solid aluminum, ball-and-socket plastic joints and pliable metal like in the case of the Tenikle 2 tripod.
The tripod market is really a crowded one and already established so it's nice that Tenikle 2 pushes the envelope by reinventing the standard ball-and-socket joint design with a clever and more functional eye-catchy tripod contraption.
The Tenikle 2 tripod can be rolled up and stored in a trouser pocket thanks to its bendable arm legs that give the Tenikle 2 a wide range of operations.
However, it's the addition of octopus-like tentacle suction cups that really sets the Tenikle 2 apart from other bendable tripods because it allows the Tenikle 2 to be even more versatile than a standard flexible tripod.
Each Tenikle 2 tentacle features three suction cups as well as a suction cup at the cross center of the Tenikle 2 food-grade silicone body where the tripod thread is also mounted. The Tenikle 2 tripod has a total of 10 suction cups which allow the Tenikle 2 tripod to be stuck to any suction-friendly surface.
Even better, the Tenikle 2 suction cups also double as holders for holding glass back phones like the iPhone X.
Saying this, like with any suction cups the suction effect is not ever lasting. The Tenikle 2 suction cups suction effect lasts around 5 minutes with dry cups and a bit longer if you moist the suction cups slightly.
While the suction effect is taking place, the Tenikle 2 suction cups do a good job at retaining securely the iPhone X glass back although for safety it's probably best to use the Tenikle 2 phone suction only for selfies, macro photography or as a desk phone holder.
For aerial shots or run-and-gun photography, it's best to use the include accessories that come with the Tenikle 2 which include a 1/4-20" adapter, a smartphone holder tripod adapter and a GoPro tripod adapter.
Compared to ball-and-socket joint tripods, the Tenikle 2 tripod is more reassuring because you don't have to worry about joints popping out from their sockets.
The only caveat though with flexible bendable tripods like the Tenikle 2 is that the pliable metal inner frame will eventually snap after being bent many times over.
Each Tenikle 2 tentacle measures 5 inches in length so when bent the Tenikle 2 can provide a maximum height of 4 inches approximately.
There is no mention on the website what type of pliable metal compound the Tinikle uses for its frame wire so it's not clear whether Tenikle 2 uses nitinol wire combined with a different shape-memory alloy.
One thing for sure though is that the Tenikle 2 legs are very sturdy and can support quite a bit of weight (up to 6.8 kg)
Another accessory that is included with Tenikle 2 is iTag, a bluetooth 4.0 remote shutter portable selfie clicker that doubles also as an anti-lost/ anti-theft alarm tracker. The addition of iTag is a thoughtful touch as iTag can be used also as a key/item finder.
iTag comes with its own mobile app, cTracing app, with cool features like Radar tracking letting you see in "feet" how far or how close iTag is from your phone.

For a more accurate location, the cTracing app also lets you track iTag via Google maps or Baidu maps.