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Ugobe, Maker of Pleo, Files For Bankruptcy
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:45 AM
from the move-to-idaho-and-look-what-happens dept.
from the move-to-idaho-and-look-what-happens dept.
AshboryBassPlayer writes "Ugobe has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy — i.e., not reorganization but liquidation. We first discussed the company's Pleo robotic dinosaur toy in 2006. According to the company, 100,000 Pleos were sold in 2008. CEO Caleb Chung is optimistic about the auction value of intellectual property that Ugobe holds. Pleo featured 14 servo joints, a camera, and an SD Card for storage. The final street prices were commonly between $275 and $350, much higher than an earlier hoped-for price point under $200."
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Don't Be Rude To This Robot 54 comments
News.com is running an article on an emotionally-responsive dinosaur robot that the Ugobe company has in the works for 2007. Called 'Pleo', the animatronic Apatosaurus will respond to the vocal intonations of its owners. It won't be able to understand vocal commands; instead, its mood will be dictated by the tone of voice used at it. A terse tone can result in a depressed dino. From the article: "Ugobe will try to go beyond selling a walking/talking toy. The company will publish a developers' kit and open its source code, making the Pleo something of a cousin to the Lego Mindstorms kits or the old Radio Shack 64-in-1 electronics kits. Consumers thus will be able to download 'personality modules' and see how their Pleos react to different stimuli ... Ultimately, the company may license the technology so others can build or incorporate robots into their own products. 'We've created a toolset for making lifelike robots,' Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher said."
[+]
Pleo Robot Dinosaur Back From Extinction 42 comments
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."
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The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Pleo 40 comments
robotsrule writes "This article contains notes from a 1-hour phone call with Ugobe founder Derek Dotson, now CEO of Innvo Labs Corporation, the company that acquired the rights to Pleo at the recent bankruptcy auction. Dotson reveals the hidden story behind Pleo's rise, fall, and resurrection including intriguing facts about the money trail and what he feels caused Ugobe to fail, including how he had to save Pleo's future on more than one occasion. He also lays out in plain detail Innvo Labs's strategy to help owners of older Pleos and those whose units were swallowed up by Ugobe's bankruptcy." We've been following the Pleo saga for years.
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Pleo? Ugobe? (Score:2, Insightful)
I have never seen the words "Pleo" or "Ugobe" until today. I would suggest that nobody else has either - which makes Chapter 7 inevitable.
That, and even if I HAD heard of either, even their hoped-for $200 is way too much for a toy, I'm sorry.
Re:Pleo? Ugobe? (Score:5, Funny)
They are (were) really neat, really stupidly expensive toys targeted at the wrong demographic. Of course they were going to fail.
If they would have listened to me and put lasers in them
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yup.... cuz not hearing about some obscure toy that didn't even last two years makes you unworthy of being a geek.
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They most certainly weren't worth the price.
They might have been about as advanced as those robotic vacuum cleaners (except some of those robot vacuum cleaners can at least charge themselves).
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>They were only a step or two more advanced than those >"talking dolls" like barney and tickle me elmo.
My friend, you are insane. They are/were light years beyond any of that. These guys had a full behavioral and learning model, not a cyclic set of preprogrammed responses to button pushing. To say nothing of a 'bump/turn left/bump/turn left path finding algorithm and a low battery, follow an infra red beacon' pattern.
Yes, it was a first generation implementation, but it is the first and ( so far )
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Evidence? (Score:2)
Maintaining a model of a simple external world is a very basic level of "Intelligence". Predicting that simple world is the next level. Being able to model and predict other similar creatures (or even "self") shows a higher level of "Intelligen
Re:Pleo? Ugobe? (Score:5, Funny)
That's a little harsh for a first-time offense.
I move that he must hand in his Geek card, but can apply for reinstatment at a later date provided that:
1. He has disassembled and reassembled a Cleo without referring to the documentation
2. He can recite the Wrath of Khan, the Princess Bride, and the Holy Grail from memory
3. He provides proof that he has lived in his mother's basement for at least 6 months prior to the date of the application.
Then we can vote on his reinstatement.
Seriously, though... What if he's a theoretical mathematics geek? Then he'd be like, 4 layers away from being required to know about this robot. Did you bother to think of that?!
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's true. I was a bit harsh. He might be able to faultlessly recite the entire dialog of every single Star Trek show. Hell, he might even understand String Theory (or pretend to at any rate).
Maybe he should just fold and spindle his card for now. Mutilate it later when he claims to never have watched "Serenity".
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No kidding. Pleo was amazing when it came out. I've got one and it is very cute and quite interesting to people. I'm glad they got to exist for a while. It's a pitty the economy killed them (not that it would have been easy otherwise).
I have my Pleo owner card in my wallet. #120000009280.
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A couple days ago these things were on Amazon [amazon.com] for $89.
Looks like they decided to jack the price up because of all the publicity.
It was on /. (Score:5, Informative)
No, I remember reading about the Pleo robotic dinosaur, last year, I think. There was one review where the reviewers tortured it, [dvice.com] and a /. article. [slashdot.org]
Parent
Re:Pleo? Ugobe? (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Do you have any idea how many chicks I've lured back to my mom's basement
My guess.... zero. ;-)
Re:Pleo? Ugobe? (Score:4, Funny)
Well yes, that is correct. But that is just because a) I own my own house, and haven't lived in my mom's basement for over 30 years now, and b) my wife has voiced strong objections to my bringing other women home.
Parent
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Ugobe? (Score:2)
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I have never seen the words "Pleo" or "Ugobe"
Dude who made the Furbie was aiming for another hit, they ran an article in Wired a few years ago. He also happens to live in Boise, Idaho. Which along with ailing Micron and HP centers constitutes the majority of Idaho's tech industry, lol.
Am I the only one? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen how this unfolds in software, I don't know about toys, but it usually goes somethnig like:
10 Boss to Client: It will cost X and will make date Y!
20 Boss to IT managers: We need it by Y!
30 Developers work overtime
40 Boss to IT managers: Keep costs down, we need to have it meet X by Y
50 IT managers' head explodes from paradox overload
60 "Rush job" turns into Poo, UAT date slips
70 Spit and bailing twine fail in UAT
80 Deadline Y whooshes by..
90 PANIC MODE LOOP GOTO 10
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure that they have to give an estimated price point when they look for investors and that without being optimistic they would probably have had a much harder time getting funding. The problem here is that they should have just kept their mouths shut about price when talking to the general public until they knew what it would, actually, cost.
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The problems many startups make is they don't realize how much stuff really costs, and how pennies start to dig in the bottom line.
I could build myself a PC with $500 worth of parts where Dell or HP would sell it for $750 still at near break even prices. Employees, Benefits, Power, Building Costs, Shipping, Inventory management, Deprecated Parts in Inventory. It really adds up.
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They probably worked out the costs if they sold >1M. They sold 100k, so never reached those economies of scale.
That's a shame, but at least they were thinking big. If they started out planning to sell 100k, they wouldn't have bothered.
I wish them luck in what they do next. Pleo is still unique.
Those dinosaurs just can't get a break... (Score:5, Funny)
It's the second time they're going extinct!
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A tribute (Score:2)
Pleo faces extinction. [ytmnd.com]
Crap (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Crap (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think this was meant for kids. They marketed this at conferences like GDC and CES, which target geeks. Probably the geeks would buy them, claiming it was for the kids. :-)
Parent
re: not meant for kids? (Score:3, Insightful)
That might be, but if so, it was a terrible business plan and as an earlier poster said, Chapter 7 was inevitable.
I actually do remember the release of the Pleo and saw a couple in stores. Everyone looked at it for about 10 seconds, saw the price tag and said "Ouch!", walking away quickly.
Especially in THIS economy, people can't justify hundreds of dollars spent on a gimmicky toy, which is what Pleo amounts to. I'm as big a geek as anybody, but I still look for products that actually do something cool I t
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>I don't think this was meant for kids.
Then why was it for sale at toys r us? I think the problem is that kids really dont want an jerky and delicate electric toy when imagination works much better. Adults dont like locked down non-programmable robots. I think the people at Woowee and Ugobe still dont realize how unnatural these things are. Their loud servos and jerky motions really says "dont buy me." Especially at $349 clams.
I was thinking of getting the robopanda for my neice, but its just a terrib
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You'd be better off selling microscopic sized robots that can use materials found in the environment around them to build working replicas of themselves, and organize into larger autonomous creations.
Your $200 is too much. One of mine can build armies! And I'll sell it for just $150. :)
You had to know that adopting a dinosaur... (Score:1, Funny)
...would end in extinction.
Better links please (Score:2)
What the world needs... (Score:5, Insightful)
WowWee Toys has a cheaper version. (Score:5, Informative)
That was expected; it was predicted in Robotics Business Review last month. The price point was far too high.
WowWee's RoboReptile [wowwee.com] is almost as advanced, and has a price point around $90.
WowWee is a company to watch. They have a broad line of reasonably good robotic toys at modest price points. They even sell a fembot. [wowwee.com]
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Re:WowWee Toys has a cheaper version. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not the same.
I've got a Pleo, and I love the little thing. There are many things that go into why I like it so much.
First, it's cute. I don't think that can be overstated. While WowWee has made some neat stuff (like the first RoboSpaian), they go for the high-tech-futuristic look. Pleo was designed to be about the size of a real juvenile dinosaur. He looks cute and inviting. The skin was designed to simulate the correct texture (or at least as best we can guess).
Second is interaction with Pleo. While he is limited once an adult, their "hatching" sequence is a ton of fun and really helps make the toy. First Pleo does next to nothing, then it complains and tries to move around. It slowly gets better and better at walking and other actions until it's an "adult". This makes it feel much more alive than a "turn it on and it's ready to kill" type robot. He doesn't just stop moving to save battery, he goes to sleep and acts the part. When you make a loud noise or touch him, he slowly wakes up again.
I can't see enough to tell from their site, but I really wonder if the RoboReptile has as many joints as a Pleo.
They aim at different markets. One's a killer robot toy, the other is a "living" baby dinosaur toy. Pleo was awesome, but it was never going to succeed. It was sort of sold as a geek toy to help subsidize the development of LifeOS to put in other toys until they came up with something cheaper. I don't think they could have succeeded except during an economic boom. I'm not surprised they didn't last, but I'm glad I have my amazing little Pleo.
Parent
Kid tested? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's obvious that they never did any "kid testing" on their toy. If you give a kid a dinosour toy, he will do the obvious kid thing: Pick it up by the tail and repeatably bash it against his toy truck.
$275 is too much to spend on a hammer, unless it's for government use.
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They never aimed the product at your average 8 year old. It really seemed like a toy of "older" boys (24+) who have money. I don't think it was ever aimed at children. They wanted to do that later, but they knew their initial product couldn't work in that market for a ton of reasons (price being the main one).
Move to Idaho? (Score:3, Informative)
It's not perfect, but I live here and love it. I'm not part of the CVB, but I welcome any well-run business fed up with their home state to take a look at Boise. It's a great place to live.
Pleo not hackerfriendly (Score:2)
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It makes sense if you think of a comma = "and", and numbers being presented as an integer part "and" a fractional part.
Particularly when (as is, I believe, most common) spaces (normal or thin) are used instead of full stops as separators for every three digit group in the whole number portion.
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Any
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When writing in a local currency, language, etc, it is polite to translate everything to local style. That does include dates, and numbers. :) If they're going to mention something in US Dollars, it should be noted accordingly.
I learned to always include a text month in dates, because when dealing with an international crowd, the first 12 days of each month tend to get confusing. :)
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Psht, I'm having to fill out forms for a K-1 Visa for my fiance (basically allowing her to enter the country to marry), and most of the forms assume (through field spacing, formatting, and labels) that her address and telephone number are US-style. These are forms that are, explicitly, for foreigners living in foreign countries. So yeah, I can sympathize.
Of course, there was also the I-134 form which didn't seem to realize that I could be born off of foreign soil, be a US citizen through my parents, and s
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Flamebait?! (Score:2, Flamebait)
Did I mention that it always wanted to talk about our Relationship?