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 April 20th 2009 9:33PM
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?