Pleo the Dinosaur Arrives...Finally!

It's been 21 months since I first wrote about Pleo, the robotic dinosaur brainchild of a startup called UGOBE. Pleo was supposed to show up in time for last Christmas, for $200. But he's beginning to ship only now--available direct from UGOBE as well as online from Amazon, Best Buy, The Sharper Image, and Target--and the price has gone up to $349.

We got to play with Pleo today at PC World, and despite the delay, he remains kind of amazing. There have been other toy robot dinosaurs, but Pleo is nothing like them--or like any other robotic toy, period. Aside from the decidedly mechanical noises he makes as he does his thing, he's the least robotic robotic toy I've ever seen.

UGOBE calls him a "life form," and he is indeed remarkably lifelike for a robot. Rather than being cast in a hard plastic shell, he's got scaly skin, not to mention eyes with eyelids. He ambles around, with a surprisingly loose-limbed gait. He likes to play tug-of-war with things you put in his mouth. He appears to notice activities around him, but when he gets tuckered out, he sleeps and snores. He likes to be petted and hates being picked up by his tail. Most of all, he appears to think--and UGOBE says that he learns from his experiences and gets smarter over time.

In short, UGOBE has created something akin to a three-dimensional cartoon character you can interact with--or a Disneyland Audio-Animatronic figure you can take home. They did it by packing Pleo full of technology: He's got two 32-bit CPUs; 14 motors (which you can hear whirring), 100 gears; a camera and infrared-based vision system in his snout; microphones where his ears would be; sensors all over so he has a sense of touch and speakers at both ends. There's a mini-USB port for PC connectivity and an SD slot for software upgrades. Everything's powered by a NiMH battery--which, unfortunately, gets only an hour on a charge.

As we hung out with Pleo this afternoon, he got a variety of responses. One coworker (who shall remain nameless) who isn't normally a pet person kept coming back to visit him, and cuddled him close. Almost everybody found him endearing, or at least entertaining. But not everyone: One person thought his skin, which feels like a rubbery Halloween mask, felt gross, and declared him "yucky." And another declared "Pleo, you won't be under my Christmas tree this year," noting that his son has a Roboraptor which he doesn't bother to turn on--he just uses it as an inanimate action figure.

And that's the big question with Pleo: He's a remarkable piece of engineering, and a hoot to play with out of the box, but is he going to provide $349 worth of entertainment? (To be fair, he's a bargain compared to Sony's late, lamented AIBO, a far less sophisticated robotic companion who went for $2000). Or will the novelty wear off far more quickly than with other playthings you might buy in the same price range, such as a Wii or an xBox 360?

We've only spent an afternoon with Pleo so far, so I can't give definitive word on how much fun owners are likely to get out of him, and for how long. But it feels like the stiff pricetag that Pleo ended up with will make him less of a toy for actual children and more of one for gadget-loving grownups--the kind who do their toy shopping at The Sharper Image, one of the first places you can buy a Pleo. Which might be just as well--I'd worry about his thin plastic skin and intricate innards withstanding the attentions of real kids, who might be just as happy with a $7.99 dinosaur pet over the long haul.

But whether Pleo turns out to be a success or not, I think he stands a good chance of being remembered. In some respects, he's unquestionably the most ambitious robotic device ever marketed to consumers, and if we all end up with mechanical companions around the house someday, we might look back at Pleo as an early landmark product.

Meanwhile, I'm still getting a kick out of our Pleo...and I recorded a quick-and-dirty video of the little guy at play, since seeing him is the best way of understanding him.