Hands-on with Pleo the dinobot

Watch out Mark Tilden, we have witnessed the future, and your family of robotic creatures is about to get totally shown up -- for a pretty steep price, of course. By now you're probably well aware of the heir to the robotoy throne that we're referring to, Ugobe's $350 Pleo dinobot (or life form, as they like to call it) dropping November 1st. Well we finally got a little face time with this sensor-laden blast from the past, and we're happy to report that the frustrating delays our Jurassic pal has suffered seem to be well worth it, as the model we saw behaved and performed almost flawlessly. Interestingly enough, although the components are quite tough (as evidenced when our demonstrator violently snapped its back and legs with no ill effects), Pleo's tactile rubber skin and puppy-like cuteness tend to make people treat it much gentler than necessary. Still, considering that these will ship with a completely hackable OS, we're sure that there will be no shortage of baby dino snuff films up on YouTube in no time. For more, um, appropriate viewing matter, check out the gallery below, and then hit the jump to watch three of these little guys do their best impression of a Budweiser commercial...

Gallery: Hands-on with Pleo the dinobot

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[Homeboy @ Aug 7th 2007 8:17PM]

Cute, but does it come in purple?

[tr @ Aug 7th 2007 8:20PM]

yes, i too would like one in purple. everyone knows the correct color for a pet dinosaur is purple.

[AshR @ Aug 7th 2007 8:34PM]

true, sure we can get someone to airbrush it to the correct colour for us :)

[jdang @ Aug 7th 2007 9:41PM]

He keeps holding it that tightly it'll turn purple ...

[crypt @ Aug 7th 2007 8:27PM]

IT'S A GIRL!!!


oh, Congratulations Engadget

[Blake @ Aug 7th 2007 8:37PM]

But can it run Doom?


I guess if you can give it a gun it will "run doom" alright...

[Chuckles McGee @ Aug 7th 2007 9:53PM]

Oh come now, he's a huggable wubbable friend bot! He should PLAY Doom, like any good friend.

[MikeG @ Aug 7th 2007 8:37PM]

"Wasaaaaaaaaaaaa"
So 2003

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 7th 2007 8:39PM]

Leaves of four, eat some more!

-at least the thing can hang.

Maybe this will start a development war and we'll see all kinds of stuff on both sides getting better.

-just don't step on any robot butterflies!
We don't want this robotic future going awry!!

[Maestro @ Aug 7th 2007 8:46PM]

Imagine going back to the year 1980 and telling everyone that the pinnacle of home robots in 2007 would be either a disc-like vaccum cleaner or a little dinosaur that immitates a 1996 Budweiser commercial!

Where is 2-XL when you need him?

[elvio @ Aug 7th 2007 10:44PM]

yes, but imagine if you told them that both of those would cost about 5 times less than a VCR of that same year (according to http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/80selectrical.html). that is amazing.

[Fubar @ Aug 7th 2007 8:46PM]

"baby dino snuff films"? Disturbing, but funny--Engadget FTW.

[Eriq @ Aug 7th 2007 8:47PM]

WHATSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!

They sound like that old Bud superbowl commercial where the guys all yell WHAT'SAAAAAAAP to each other lol

[js @ Aug 7th 2007 8:51PM]

Will it blend?

[Kevlar @ Aug 7th 2007 9:31PM]

That is the question.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 7th 2007 9:39PM]

Indeed!

Pleo smoke...don't breathe this!

[Ellianth @ Aug 7th 2007 10:49PM]

I'm more interested to see how it burns. That elmo thing was freaky, lets see if pleo can top it.

[Shannin @ Aug 7th 2007 9:15PM]

how would you like to be held by the tail?
with all the features in that dino they should throw in a tilt sensor that at that angle makes it puke

[MikeG @ Aug 7th 2007 9:27PM]

I dont know about you but the majority of us don't have a tail...

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 7th 2007 10:53PM]

Laugh while you can, monkey boy!

[Jamie @ Aug 7th 2007 9:45PM]

I, for one, will resist our whining dinosaur robot overlords.

[Chuckles McGee @ Aug 7th 2007 10:32PM]

Hello Tickle-Me-Elmo of Christmas Season 2007! Limited supply...high demand...mmm,mmm, I smell a free market jambalaya brewing.

[spartan @ Aug 7th 2007 11:08PM]

RRRAAAAAAAH!

[todd @ Aug 8th 2007 1:09AM]

Happy to read that Pleo put on a good performance!

If you're looking for more information about Pleo, head on over to Pleo HQ...

http://pleohq.com/

The site brings together Pleo content from a variety of sources such as links from del.icio.us, a custom feed of news and blog posts, images from Flickr, videos from YouTube, auctions from eBay, and also has some other basic info like technical specs, an FAQ with open commenting, and so on.

Hope you find it informative.

TL

P.S. http://pleohq.com/faq/will-it-blend/

[Andy K @ Aug 8th 2007 8:50AM]

Isn't 'dinobot' a hasbro trademark? i.e Transformers?

[jetdogy @ Aug 8th 2007 10:33AM]

Majority of these posts are pathetic. If you don't like Pleo, don't get one. If you get one because you want to abuse it or burn it, then you are "sick".
The person in the photo holding Pleo by the tail obviously has some kind of violence in him, idiot.

Long live the Pleos!

[Mike @ Aug 8th 2007 12:48PM]

When the custom Pleo skins arrive, sign me up for a red dragon skin. Maybe a chuthulu skin if they can make the all the tenticles move.

[sinead @ Aug 9th 2007 5:46AM]

Cute but pointless.

[daniel @ Aug 8th 2007 10:36AM]

like all toys..?

[silvarga @ Aug 9th 2007 6:22PM]

Yeah sure, they're cute and cuddly-wuddly NOW, But what happens when your kids get them wet and/or feed them after midnight?

We are so Fcuked.