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Pleo Robot Dinosaur Back From Extinction

Posted by kdawson on from the one-pleosaur-please dept.

robotsrule sends in a follow-up to our earlier discussion of the bankruptcy of Ugobe, maker of the Pleo robotic dinosaur: "Jetta Company Limited, based in China and Hong Kong, the company that manufactured the Pleo baby robot dinosaur for Ugobe, has bought the intellectual property rights and other assets at the Ugobe bankruptcy sale that occurred on May 21. Jetta is an established company with a 32-year history in manufacturing. They have issued a short press release announcing Pleo's rebirth. Steve Ohler, the US liaison for Jetta, confirmed the news, saying that the company is firmly committed to re-launching Pleo and continuing the line including producing accessories such as the vital battery and charger components. Jetta, as the original manufacturer, is the best possible company to have acquired Ugobe's intellectual property and to announce plans to re-launch Pleo. Ohler remarked that all of the equipment needed to produce Pleos and accessories is still intact and ready to go."

42 comments

  1. Shucks... by thebryce · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...I was hoping for a leopluradon. A magical leopluradon.

    1. Re:Shucks... by Missing_dc · · Score: 1

      to show us the way....

      --
      How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
    2. Re:Shucks... by Natetheinfamous · · Score: 1

      the way to candy mountain!

      --
      "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." - Thomas A. Edison
    3. Re:Shucks... by Phoghat · · Score: 1

      Am I the only person who thinks that robot "pets" are just a little bit creepy?

      --
      Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
  2. Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Surely, after seeing Jurassic Park, nobody could possibly think that reviving an extinct race of robotic dinosaurs could possibly be a good idea?

    1. Re:Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by Andr+T. · · Score: 1

      I didn't RTFA, but did they merge the robots with frogs this time? It'd be an amazing frog-bot!

      --

      Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

    2. Re:Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by Sehnsucht · · Score: 1

      Dinobots, only in league with Skynet!

    3. Re:Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by Starayo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Dear god. Skynet + robotic raptors.

      Guys, we're fucked.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1

      In related news, Jetta Company, Ltd., will be changing its name to Cyberdyne Systems. And, in other news, Congress has passed the Skynet Funding Bill, which is set to remove human decisions from strategic defense. Details at 11.

      --
      My blog
    5. Re:Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      If they only made it 5 times bigger. Then I could walk it around the block and freak out my neighbors. Well, they may need to build a different more aggressive dinosaur, that would charge at people and other small animals, but that would be cool.

    6. Re:Remember 'Chaos Theory' Guys! by somersault · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, Hasbro can save us - they just need to build some Autobots that are to proper scale!

      --
      which is totally what she said
  3. that was a close shave! by edittard · · Score: 4, Funny

    We can all sleep soundly tonight, secure in the knowledge that we can still have toy robotic dinosaurs.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  4. Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by momerath2003 · · Score: 2, Funny

    What is a Pleo, and why should I care?

    A: It's an animatronic toy dinosaur from ~2006. And I shouldn't care.

    It would be nice for the article summary to briefly state this.

    --
    I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    1. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Rhaban · · Score: 3, Funny

      maker of the Pleo robotic dinosaur

      the company that manufactured the Pleo baby robot dinosaur

      They should have used the word "toy" somewhere, just to be sure it wasn't giant rocket-launching baby dinosaur robots.

    2. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by clickety6 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why should you care?

      It's a dinsoaur AND it's a robot!

      Yes! A dinosaur AND a robot in one!

      All it needs is a frickin' laser mounted on it's head and you can take over the world!

      --
      ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
    3. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by junglee_iitk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes they do! In the very first sentence of it:

      "... a follow-up to our earlier discussion of the bankruptcy of Ugobe, maker of the Pleo robotic dinosaur"

      How lazy are you to not check the article on Ugobe before complaining on Pleo?

    4. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Andr+T. · · Score: 1

      My 2-year-old son likes to watch this cartoon called Mechanimals that proved me that dino-robots can be boring as hell.

      --

      Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

    5. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by thedonger · · Score: 1

      It's a dinsoaur AND it's a robot!

      Change that to "It's a pirate-ninja AND it's a robot!," and you may be on to something.

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    6. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Rhaban · · Score: 1

      can suck energy or â"or suck out your powers or somethingâ¦something to do with suckingâ¦and when he overdoes it, he turns into this giant green olâ(TM) Jurassic Park thingâ¦like a dinosaurâ¦a vampire dinosaurâ¦vampire or dinosaur would have been enough, but this guy is bothâ¦which reallyâ¦is just showing off

      Spiderman, The New Avengers.

      Now, what about a beowulf cluster of ninja-vampire-robot-dinosaur-pirates?

    7. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by momerath2003 · · Score: 1

      Oh, I checked the article. But the summary and even the title make it seem like this dinosaur is something that EVERYONE is aware of already. It just doesn't strike me as front page–worthy news.

      --
      I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    8. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by camperdave · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Two 32-bit ARM7 processors
      Four 8-bit processors for motor control
      Fourteen tiny motors
      One color camera
      Two microphones
      One IR transmitter
      One accelerometer
      Eight capacitance touch sensors

      Why should you care? Sounds like something that's just begging to be hacked.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    9. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Bluesman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Good idea. My hacked version will seek out other robot dinosaurs and "mount" them. I think it will be great for parties.

      --
      If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
    10. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by SpinyNorman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think "animatronic toy" is being a bit dismissive, even if it didn't live up to the hype.

      It's really an autonomous robot that learns and reacts to the environment - it's not just a robot with a remote or a canned set of moves.

      That said, the degree of learning and autonomy it displays seems to be rather limited, although the promise was for this to be imporoved in subsequent software releases.

      The reason you, as a Slashdot denizen, should care, is:

      1) As an autonomous robot - with vision and hearing - it is pretty cool.

      2) It's eminently hackable, and really an excellent value as a chunk of mechanics and electronics.

    11. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by cusco · · Score: 1

      If they were to put a USB port on the thing to allow easy hacking this would be the hottest geek toy come Christmas, especially if it could use the same command set that the Lego robotics package uses.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    12. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should you care?

      It's a dinsoaur AND it's a robot!

      Yes! A dinosaur AND a robot in one!

      All it needs is a frickin' laser mounted on it's head and you can take over the world!

      You can play the flash game- Robots, Dinosaurs, Beams.
      http://www.arcadebomb.com/play/robot_dinosaurs_that_shoot_beams_when_they_roar.html

    13. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Apparently, there is a slot for an SD card.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    14. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It supports both a SD card and a USB port. There is a dev kit for building behaviors that can be shared as files and placed on an SD card to add to your pleo with no risk to the core behaviors.

    15. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by BikeHelmet · · Score: 1

      When the company went under, these things showed up on Amazon for $50! For that kind of price, what devout hardware hacker wouldn't pick one up?

      Now that they are being produced by a company that needs to survive, I'm guessing the price will go back up? Hopefully not all the way back to the original $200.

    16. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      rootkit?

    17. Re:Maybe I'm ignorant, but... by junglee_iitk · · Score: 1

      Well, it has been discussed twice already. You are a little late in complaining about newsworthy-ness :)

      PS: I sounded rude in my last comment. Sorry :(

  5. What is it. by will_die · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you are wondering what this is, here is a picture and here.
    More info here.

  6. Well that makes sense by theIsovist · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I always remembered these things having a strong following among both hackers, and the children of the rich. There's a market there, now if only the chinese company can lower the cost so it doesn't seem like you're buying an actual pet without any of the benifits of having a live animal.

    1. Re:Well that makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      > the benifits of having a live animal.

      Portable fresh food?

    2. Re:Well that makes sense by theIsovist · · Score: 1

      my roommate had two rabbits (which became 6...) that she refused to name for that very reason.

  7. Victim of commercialism by hcdejong · · Score: 0, Troll

    continuing the line including producing accessories such as the vital battery and charger components.

    If such accessories are vital, the damn toy should have been designed to accept generic batteries and charger instead of @#$$% proprietary consumables. This is one of the suckier aspects of capitalism.

    1. Re:Victim of commercialism by aethelwyrd · · Score: 1

      Well it worked for the company that just went under....

  8. How much did they save on the IP rights? by phtpht · · Score: 1

    Leaves me wonder. How much did they pay for the IP rights and how much would they cost if the company didn't bankrupt?

  9. Hilarious Wikipedia lead in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This article is about the robot. For party leaders and elected officials of the United States' Democratic Party, see superdelegate.

  10. Re:that was a close shave! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    If anyone saw the telesales task on the [UK] apprentice, I think this was one of the potential products. They didn't choose it.

    I'm sure that's what drove them into bankruptcy.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  11. Dino Bots are really lame / by Phizzle · · Score: 1

    not at all what we all crave / they will never save the day/ BURMA SHAVE

    --
    I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
  12. A huge roadside ad display... by Vastad · · Score: 1

    ...in Johor Bahru, Malaysia out near the Taman Desa Cemerlang suburb, was happily promoting the Pleo toy to local traffic.

    I was throw for a loop because I thought the company went bankrupt. It's possible they simply forgot to take it down. And now, they don't need to.