Pleo – We’ve come a long way from pet rocks and tamagochis

Got a press release about this today. Including a second email with another 3 JPGs totalling 6mb. Grr.

So what’s the Pleo? Well according to the blurb in the release it will be the hot new toy of Christmas 2007 and is already toy of the year for one of the toy lobby groups. That’s how they’ll build the hype anyway. From the Wiki page on Pleo:

Pleo is a robotic dinosaur, made for all ages, designed to emulate the appearance and behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby, and manufactured by Ugobe. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its stocky head and realitively large cranium (as compared to other dinosaurs) made it ideal for concealing the dozens of sensors and motors used to create the illusion of life.

My fav bit is:

The robot will be software-upgradeable via SD cards or USB and cost around 350 USD. Ugobe will encourage user modifications of the robot’s firmware, providing a graphical interface for home users and an API for programmers.

This is how the robots rise up against us. Expect some clever fecker to create a Wiimote interface to it and you can take it for walks.

I think the thing needs more annoying fucking sounds. Like Elmo. If the retail price wasn’t more than an XboX360 I’d consider getting one. Afterall, I own one of those Elmos. Blog title thanks to Jimmy G.

Oh found one with him being noisy. The video is the most vomit inducing thing I’ve seen in a while. The fucking music and titles just make you want to set it on fire:

One Response to “Pleo – We’ve come a long way from pet rocks and tamagochis”

  1. Des says:

    “The fucking music and titles just make you want to set it on fire: ”

    An ideal present for someone else’s children..