Pleo gets thoroughly obliterated by demented ComBot
It's not that we've never seen the insides of Pleo, it's that we've never seen it splayed so inhumanely. During Maker Faire 2008, a middleweight ComBot known as Vicious Verdict was placed in the ring with UGOBE's cuddly dinosaur, and suffice it to say, Pleo didn't stand a chance. The entire death lasts about three minutes, but there's a solid minute of taunting that goes on before the ComBot starts the decimation process. Straight up, this is one of the more haunting things we've ever seen happen to a poor, helpless, animated robot. Vid's after the break for your sickos who dare.
[Via Tech Digest]
[Via Tech Digest]























Poor Pleo... :(
It looks like a scene in the movie, AI...
That's just wrong.
Crikey, why does it take 3 minutes to kill Pleo? Even without taunting, it still takes a couple minutes of flinging him about to wreck him properly. How badly designed is Combot?? Not only can't it do its job, but it has absolutely no magic or imagination about it. Well done on another celebration of mediocrity.
Next we'll have video of Honda's ASIMO torturing a Sony AIBO with a screwdriver.... then the human mimicry will be complete and they will have all the knowledge they need to turn on their fleshy creators.
I submitted this!!
last weekish
That was so sad. :(
It reminds me of that one scene in the movie A.I. where they destroy all the old robots as part of some sort of carnival sideshow event.
i was JUST going to write that!! Being the scfi nerd i am, AI is one of my most favorite flicks of all time. And the first thing i thought of when i saw this was..."its a little TOO much like the Flesh Carnival in AI"...it is a pretty sad thing to watch (even though they are but metal lol)
I can only hope mankinds twisted desire for carnage doesnt comeback to bite us in the @ss when we do make robots with true AI...of course we all already know how that ends..
Precisely. the point of that scene in the movie was to show how cruel and inhumane the humans were.
Life imitating art indeed!
This is sick... and engadget should NOT be promoting this... other then to discuss how irresponsible this is in a branding sense.
This is an item marketed to children, and I for one would not let my child watch this...
As an owner of a cute little Pleo, this was really painful to watch....
Whatever happens, make sure your Pleo doesn't watch this. Either he will start abusing drugs or he will kill you while you are sleeping...
Uh... hello??? How does the Robo-Revolution ALWAYS start? By forcing the robo's to submit to ridiculue and punishement at our bidding!! Don't think Pleo didn't send out a wireless distress calling for the destruction of human kind.
We only have ourselves to blame.
In the meantime... who wants to see Vicious VS. ElmoSapien?? I do!
That video was sick and funny at the same time. :)
I, for one, welcome our Pleo-destroying robotic overlords.
As a Pleo owner I know I felt like kicking it around a few times frustrated by it's inane behaviour. Ripping skin that flakes paint, chipping teeth and 1 hour battery with a 4.5 hour recharge, this thing is no more capable of learning than it's predecessor Furby (invented by the same person) and look at the videos on YouTube of what people are doing to those LOL. Run Pleo Run?? I'd say more like dumb Pleo dumb.
I've never liked that Pleo thingy, However that footage was beyond evil, But fun at the same time.
People with too much time on their hands. I mean what kind of ridiculous entertainment is this? And they've wrecked a cool toy a lot of kids and grownups would like to have. Call me crazy, I'm just not a fan of needless destruction, even of a machine.
Now creation, that's a lot harder to do, eh? Shame of how easy it is to destroy what takes so much more time, energy and effort to create.
NO PLEO! RUN! RUNNNNNNN! RUN PLEO RUUUUUUUNNNN!!!! *covers his eyes* Oh the humanity...wait...oh well.
That reminds me... I need to sharpen the blade on my lawnmower.
overkill much?
poor thing :(
This reminds me of "Flesh Fairs" on AI.....crazy...
hahahahaha this is hilarious! i think someone should make a large combot with a mouth and watch robot predation! gives "food chain" a whole new meaning
Wait a minute, who markets Pleo to kids? All I see online when I search for Pleo is lonely middle aged dudes...
=(
I wish I could buy a Pleo to save them from all the carnage the internet throws at them.
This must have been terrible for all the small kids watching. Twice so for the little ones who thought Pleo was real...
It's like watching a bodybuilder with a baseball bat beat the hell out of a mentally handicapped kid in a wheelchair. There's really no point in it if there's no chance for the other to win. I agree with Spyvie about giving Pleo a weapon and an evenly matched opponent.
Two Pleos modified to swing blades at each other when they get near the other Pleo (or something similar) would be worth watching.
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHHAHA
AHHHHHHHHHHAAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
IT´S A PLASTIC TOY! To anyone genuinely offended by this video, please do the world a favor and NEVER breed!
"decimation process"? I don't think you really meant to say 10% of the pleo was destroyed...
I really don't understand how this is controversial. A lawnmower runs over a toy and some people think its graphic enough to require a warning? Grow some skin. If it had been a puppy or a kitten I could understand outrage, Hell, I would be upset, but the destruction of an overpriced toy is nothing. If you are going to waste time and energy getting upset about some random thing on the internet, why not do a search for images of collateral damage in Iraq, and do it without any content filters, there is something worth getting upset over and commenting on. Try to keep things in perspective.
For real, people are getting upset about this? It's friggen metal, rubber, and plastic. They're making a bunch of em. No-one strapped an M80 to a GI-Joe when they were a kid? At least he looked like a human... C'mon, calm yourselves.
This video isn't remotely funny. I wouldn't let my 7 yo watch this. And yes, the pun was intended. Take the video off, Ryan.
Everyone here seems to be saying that this is nothing more than a plastic toy, and that anyone who is freaking out about this needs to "grow a backbone." While I mostly agree with these comments, we do need to take videos like this as a veiled threat against our current state of ethics and morality. Yes, the AI on the dinosaur is not very good. One could even say that the remote controlled death-bot-of-ultimate-destruction has more brains... but it does pose the lingering question: when does something like this become less of a joke, and more of a problem? People here are mentioning the flesh fair from AI, but remember that there are a lot of people who really feel like that. Where do we really draw the line between destruction of an obnoxious toy, and the torture of a legimately intelligent being? when it becomes as smart as an ant? as a dog?
Now, I know most people that come to places like this have already given this some thought, and probably have a line drawn in their own minds, but what about the people who havent? These future flesh fair attendees are more numerous than I would hope at least. Rather a bit more sobering post than I would have hoped to start off the weekend.
Possibly I would have prefered they opened it up and hacked into a similarly competing robot of death - thus giving combot a run for its money. That is, after all, what the maker fayre is all about isn't it?
Now I know the robot wars have started.
Pleo, get your revenge! :)
Sad...yet funny...funnier is hearing the kids scream with every hit. My only complaint is that they could have gotten a better robot to kick the Pleo's butt! Many of the robots are incredible with what they can do...that one was pretty boring. But you gotta give it up for the Pleo...it stood up for a good while when it was completely NOT built for this. Hahaha.
What's driving me mad is the attitude of these people: to create robots to destroy them...poor intelligent robots of the future, what a destiny is around the corner...