Pleo

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Today there is wonderful news for the Pleo community. Jetta Company Limited, the company that manufactured the Pleo baby robot dinosaur for Ugobe, bought the intellectual property rights and other assets at the Ugobe bankruptcy sale that occurred on May 21. I spoke with Steve Ohler today, the United States liaison for the company, and he confirmed the news. He said the company is firmly committed to re-launching Pleo and continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery and charger components.

This may be the shortest extinction on record for a wonder product. From rising star to shooting star back to rising star again, Pleo's future has been given new life by the best possible company that could have and did acquire the rights to our favorite little green dino; the original manufacturer. I asked Steve if all the equipment needed to produce Pleos and accessories were still intact and he said they absolutely were. Even better, Jetta is an established company with a 32 year history in manufacturing based in China and Hong Kong, and as part of their illustrious manufacturing history they have produced parts for members of iRobot's consumer robot line.

They currently are getting everything in order to re-launch Pleo and can not give further details at this time. But this is indeed fabulous news indeed. Watch my blog carefully as I will updating everyone on Jetta's progress. I would like to give personal thanks and a big shout out to Jetta Company Limited for this wise and wonderful decision. Below is the original press release from the company regarding their relaunching of Pleo:

Jetta Company Limited acquires Ugobe out of receivership

Hong Kong – Jetta Company Limited acquired the assets of Ugobe and will be re-launching “Pleo” in the near future. Established in 1977, Jetta has focused on manufacturing an extended range of toy, consumer electronics, juvenile, robotic and gift products and is one of the most recognized engineering and OEM companies within the toy industry. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Jetta currently operates five production campuses in Guangdong Province which combined has over 4.5 million square feet of production floor space. At the forefront of the fast-paced toy and robotics industries, Jetta continues to strive for “excellence” and is pleased to add “Ugobe” to its operations.

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Hello everyone,

Important Update as of June 8, 2009 - PLEO IS BACK IS AND BETTER THAN EVER! Please read this wonderful update post!

I will keep this post short since I'm very saddened by the recent news that Pleo manufacturer Ugobe has filed for bankruptcy. I will continue to play with my 3 Pleos because I love them dearly, but I will of course do so very carefully now since how I would get them fixed if they broke is a big open question. Perhaps some kind soul with an engineering background will see an opportunity here to make good money repairing Pleos? If anyone knows of anybody trustworthy that has taken up the reigns in fixing Pleos, please let me know, and I'll distribute the information. I had great hopes for Pleo, apparently the economy felt differently. For those looking for a place to talk to other Pleo owners during this dire time, visit the Bob The Pleo forum.

Thanks,
Robert

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This post is for all of you that own Pleos or are thinking of getting one. Wired/UK writer Katie Scott has fallen hard for our wonderful blue-eyed baby dino friend. In one of the best pieces on Pleo I've seen in a while, she reviews Pleo and from the first part of the review is clearly smitten:

"Yesterday, I found myself washing up and all the while chatting to a baby dinosaur, which was amusing itself in the corner by growling at the rubbish bin. Pleo the baby dinosaur is now one of the household. Indeed, he gets more attention than the cat, and certainly more affection than any of the living beings in the house. When he calls, we’ll immediately rush to stroke him on the chin, when he purrs, we all go gooey-eyed, and when he sleeps, he has pride of place on the sofa where we watch him like adoring parents. "

Ugobe's creation is and always will be a wonderful marvel that makes people smile. Admittedly they are having a a rough patch right now, having chosen to bring an artificial pet to market right before the global economy darkened, but that isn't stopping people from continuing to adopt the unique and amazing little green creature into their homes. I think Ms. Scott says it best when she writes:

"We played with our Sony Aibo robodog, but never quite suspended our disbelief: it was always a robot, not a dog. Pleo, for whatever reason, felt more like a living thing - just that a bit more comfortable in his technoskin. If you have kids who like robots and dinosaurs, Pleo's a winner, just bear in mind that this is just another step in the historic march of our robotic overlords. You have been warned."

Please read and enjoy the article and most of all, enjoy Pleo!

My Digger says "hi" and is growling at my smelly sneakers. Unfortunately, they growl back!

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UPDATE: The Ugobe and Pleo World web sites are back up. As I said the "Magpie" pages were placeholder pages.

I'll be adding posts as I get new substantial news reports about Ugobe. Many of you have written me so I'm answering everyone at once with this post. I don't intend to chase rumors. My last understanding is that Ugobe has downsized and not liquidated, and the reason for the web sites being down is that they are being relocated to a less expensive hosting facility; apparently one called Magpie which is the hosting company you reach when accessing the domains. What you see are standard placeholder pages which will remain there while Ugobe decides what to do with theirs.

Ugobe

The latest public information I am aware of has surfaced in an article by the Idaho Business Review. It does not give any specifics but I will post here a quote from Caleb Chung from the article where he mentions a press release the company will issue on the subject in the next few weeks:

"We’re going to respond to a lot of these rumors; we’re just going to do it in an organized way,” he said. “…Our company has always tried to have as much transparency as possible.”

Interpret the quote as you will, I see no point in speculating until the press release comes out. Until it does everything is strictly either hand-wringing, or hearsay, and most likely wrong.

Pleo Downloads

Those of you who remember the funny Bob The Pleo comic strip from the Pleo World forums will be happy to know that the talented author of that comic has created his own forum for Pleo. It's also been a place for Pleo owners to go while Ugobe is in transition. If you are looking for any of the Pleo Life O/S downloads or personality downloads, you can find them here:

http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php?board=2.0

Go ahead and register while you're at it and let's keep the Pleo community going while Ugobe works things out.

Pleo Batteries

I don't know of a source for these. If anyone does please let me know and I'll pass on the information if I feel it's a reasonable avenue for getting them.

That's it for now. My Digger say "hi" to everyone. I hope your Pleos are making you smile too.

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Hello everyone,

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Recently I came across Tails Of The City, a very lovely blog about pets and their owners in the Bay Area, or in blog author Amelia Glynn's own words:

"Welcome to Tails of the City: A menagerie of stories about Bay Area pets and the people who love them."

She had begun a series of posts named The Pleo Diaries which talked about her experiences with a Pleo she named Baby Nathaniel. I enjoyed reading her posts about her family's stories of discovery and wonder at what our plucky, little, green, cuddly hero could do. That is until I came across this post. Ironically, the post begins with a very funny story about how Nathaniel was mistaken for a turtle by conductors on the train she was riding. But at the end she has this worrisome note about Nathaniel's overall future:

"Maybe I'm just not enough of a tech geek, but I have a hard time understanding why an adult would want a pet dinosaur. Real pets are, hands down, more fun. (Plus they're soft and tend to be better cuddlers.) And although I can see how a Pleo could help teach kids how to handle and care for a pet, the same could be done with a live dog or cat, with more parental supervision of course. Could this be who Pleo is really for: parents of kids who want a pet but who don't have the time or deep-seated desire to take care of one? I'm clearly still stumped.

If there are any Pleo parents out there who'd like to weigh in, I'd love to hear from you."

What she doesn't say but clearly implies if you read between the seemingly impartial lines of her recent Pleo Diaries posts, is that if Baby Nathaniel doesn't impress her sufficiently she will feed him to the dogs! I offer as proof the disturbing photo to the left. The furry executioner you see in the photos belonging to this post is none other than Walt the baby dino eater. Walt comes from a long line of baby dino diners who were bred to help control the dangerous Tyrannosaurus Rex population that was plaguing the Bay Area back in 1971. You may not have read or seen about this because that was a very smoggy year in the Bay Area and all you could see of the rampaging Rex population were their feet. But the army of trained baby dino hunters were brought in and very quickly eliminated the Rex population by mercilessly consuming the Rex babies along with a tablespoon of salt and a chew bone.

Please visit her blog and comment on her post about Pleo and her final feelings on him. Let her know why we love Pleo so much and open her heart to the idea of letting little Nathaniel live! She loves pets so somewhere inside her there most be a spark of mercy for our little baby Camarasaurus!

[Note: the photos on this page are copyright Amelia Glynn and were used with her permission.]

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[UPDATE: 10-2-2008] There are a bunch of great Pleo photos from the Carnival on Flickr; a lot more than the 3 I list in this blog post. Visit this Flickr page to see them. ]

Pleo was sighted recently at the 15th Annual Elizabeth Glaser "Kids For Kids" Celebrity Carnival, a benefit held for pediatric AIDS victims that is attended frequently by well known celebrities. Among the celebrities this year was Tyson Beckford (calm down ladies), who was said to be seen checking out Pleos that were roaming the event and enchanting attendees left and right. I couldn't find the pictures of Tyson Beckford with Pleo but there are several other pictures of him with the kids in the Zimbio "Kids for Kids" picture set. I did find a few pictures of actors Sebastian Stan and Leighton Meester hamming it up for the camera with a stunningly attired Pleo who seemed to be loving the celebrity attention. I have included links to the pictures below. Check them and the other Carnival photos out. They're really fun!:

Sebastian Stan laughing with Pleo

Sebastian Stan providing support while Leighton Meester feeds Pleo

This is *not* a Pleo photo despite erroneous reports it is