Looks like Pleo couldn't dodge that meteor -- everyone's favorite lovable robot dinosaur company Ugobe has laid off all its employees and filed for bankruptcy. That confirms a
month of speculation that things were on the brink -- Ugobe's website has been up and down for a while, and a
major supplier filed suit a couple weeks ago for nonpayment. There's a chance that some other toymaker will swoop in and pick up the pieces during the liquidation, but we wouldn't hold our breath -- Pleo owners, feel free to commiserate in the comments.
Painful bonus: Link your pics of the Pleo going extinct on
our comment form here and we'll make a gallery. C'mon. You know you want to do it.
[Thanks, Andrew]
Chris Ziegler's entry
Sisyphus's entry
posted Apr 20th 2009 9:33PM
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
you honestly cant be suprised....
I blame those damn amber coated mosquitoes!
dang it. And I thought the end was coming in 2012. I guess all those Nibiru theories were wrong... (man, I read way to many internet conspiracies)
Tickle me Elmo FTW!
Don't worry, somebody (most likely in China) will clone this thing and it'll run amok in a theme park after a storm and the power goes out. Wow, this would make a great movie...
DO NOT WANT!
Any company who's trying to push a $349 toy dinosaur in this economy is out of their mind (and apparently, now out of business too).
monster cable sucks
No they don't, they are just overpriced.
You and monster cable suck. For everyone else stop posting other peoples comments
I think he meant Monster Cable, the company itself, sucks, not the cables themselves.
I foresee this becoming another "Can it run Crysis"
@greg
Dude, haven't you been paying any attention?... Both the company and the cables suck...
who cares?
well, quick, slap an apple sticker on that pleo! fanboys will hail it as the second coming of christ.
(sorry about the double post, there really needs to be a "edit" button.
Think about the laid off employees you inconsiderate jerk
everyones laid off these days, and uglobe wasnt that big of a company, anyway...
@rcarm
Bah, shut up. Why should he care about the laid-off employees? It's more important in this economy to worry about your own hide.
Would you like your extinction buddy to be Rapter Jesus or Philosoraptor?
There's pleo owners?
As many as you can see here replying..
I saw the Pleo @ Target. It looked so cool. I just wished my 2 yr old was 4. I'd totally have one. Was at Target yesterday & looked around just to be sure. Would probably have bought one had they been on the shelves.
I bought one but then it was lonely so I bough four more to be a real herd. Now all my little Pleos walk into walls together its so fun!
So in hindsight all the Pleo coverage was a waste? Ouch!
Ya can't say they didn't try!
LOL I like this new picture over the plain Pleo pic before.
This reminds me of The Land Before Time, which was the saddest movie EVER. :'(
Which one? Land Before Time I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, or XII?
I just remember seeing random parts of it on TV when I was younger.
Also, The Land Before Time XIV is supposed to come out in '09 (you skipped XIII). And no, I don't just know this, I looked this up after posting.
The Land Before Time: Infinity, I think
Land Before Time : Forever
The Land Before Time 2002: We Made So Many Sequels We Kinda Caught Up
I think The Land Before Time is competing with Final Fantasy.
*laughs* They've made more Land before times than there are Rocky movies.......
Rename Land before time to : Never ending story
The Land Before Time 22 - Prehistoric Boogaloo?
Seriously, it doesn't take a bad economy to make a company like this go under. I mean, how many people out there are willing to invest $250 for a damn robot dinosaur?
Yes, I feel sorry for the people who lost their jobs, but surely someone saw this coming?
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF055-Dinosaur_Meteors.jpg
?
Heh. Nice comic.
PBF is the best. Honda isn't too bad either... I like your style, dude.
jeez Ziegler! its looks like your Pleo's in pain! what did u do to him?! (other than pelt him with what appears to be flaming rocks from the far reaches of the kuiper belt)
:P
well there goes my skynet prediction
poor pleo, i like that little guy, too much for my pocket, lol, RIP
oh well.
I always planned on getting one
I was visiting one of their factories in Southern China in February, the Pleo line was all wrapped up 'on ice' waiting for the call to resume production... a dozen or so dirty, sad little Pleo-urchins were wandering around the QA test area seemingly lost and motherless...
no offense, i didn't even know they existed.
I'm a huge fan of robots, but the Pleo never appealed to me. It just wasn't a well designed robot toy, and aesthetically didn't make a good dinosaur for that matter. The price didn't help much, too.
Like so many companies that have recently gone under, it's always interesting to read comments on what should have been done instead that would have made the company and/or the product soar, instead of crash and burn like it did.
As if it wasn't obvious (and I hope it's obvious to the rest of the public), when Circuit City decided to hatchet all the smart, possibly well-compensated A/V geeks with demotivated teenagers with a salary just above the position that operates the fryer at McDonald's, we all did a collective slap to the forehead.
Personally, the Pleo looked cool, but was too expensive for the mainstream public. Looking at it closer when it finally hit the shelves at the equally dying Sharper Image, it didn't appear to be a revolutionary product that would have warranted my money, full price, or even at closeout when it was as low as 70% off before it disappeared off the shelves.
For some reason my e-mail isn't valid when I submit on the comment link, so go here to see my sympathy card:
http://www.scootfurio.us/junkbin/noah.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5545/ageofpleo.jpg
Well am I going in the gallery or not???
crapdoodles. go figure that this would happen as soon as i order one. :/
This count, it's a vid, but still - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95MAyWE0ERk&eurl
I hope Pleo gets to meet Teddy Ruxpin in servo heaven :)
The only thing Pleo is useful for is circuit bending.
Enough already. It was creepy and boring. Let the batteries die and have them all fossilize in a landfill somewhere.
First real dinosaurs go extinct, and now robot ones. What the hell, God?
Eh, I did some, thanks for wasting my time Engadget! http://photocast.me.com/tonyvarin/100064/rss
I own a Pleo. He's been on my shelf doing nothing since about 60 days after I purchased him.
There weren't enough software updates. Battery life was very short, and initially you couldn't buy a second battery. His motors were too loud.
On the other hand, he was loved by crowds. People really enjoyed petting him and playing with him when I brought him to meetings in the office.
An interesting but expensive and limited product. I've thought about putting him on eBay, but would anyone want him?
/his name is Horatio.
Phew, I thought that said the Pre was facing extinction.
I'm not surprised. The guy who invented Pleo tried to pass it off as something it wasn't. The claims that it had AI and was able to learn from it's environment was a load of rubbish. I owned one and after a day with it Pleo was boring. It has the same predictable skits to each of the touch sensors, couldn't really see or recognise what it saw, was deaf and the battery lasted about an hour with a 4 hour recharge. The skin eventually wore down from petting it which was ridiculous considering that was the key selling point of this thing (pet it and it will react), the teeth chipped as well. It was simply a new millennium furby with rubber skin and nothing more. Maybe if the price point was more in keeping to what this toy actually was Ugobe may still be in business, but instead the inventor conned a lot of people out of a lot of money and clearly Pleo's reputation quickly became tarnished.
Neil Sedaka is on Regis right this moment singing "I Love My Dinosaur Pet" to the tune of "Calendar Girl".
How appropos.
So does this mean that Pleos will be going for a song now that they're bankrupt?