Pleo to be manufactured once again

News the last couple of days are that the Hong Kong based Jetta Company Limited has acquired the Pleo IP from Ugobe and they have promised to start manufacturing the robot toy once again in the near future. The company's press release was not any more specific about exactly how and when Pleo will be brought back to life.

Back in April when Ugobe filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, I mentioned a number of reasons as to why Pleo failed in the market. In summary, the product was overpriced and overhyped; the cost of 350$ was too much for a luxury toy during an major economic downturn. Ugobe's IP was expected to sell for a good amount of money and so it is no surprise that a large and successful company such as Jetta eventually purchased it. I guess I should mention that Jetta was the original manufacturer of Pleo working under contract with Ugobe during the dinosaur's brief existence on Earth.

I am curious to see what Jetta will do with Pleo. Are they going to manufacture and sell Pleo exactly as it was last or are they actually going to upgrade it in some ways? Is Caleb Chung going to be involved in future development? This latter point may be important for the continued survival of this robotic toy. At the end of the day, I believe that much of the media coverage and the hype surrounding Pleo had lots to do with the fact that it was the brainchild of Caleb famous for being the creator of the Furby toy. Without him and without any major improvements of the current product, will anyone care for Pleo?

We will know in a few months what Jetta has in store for Pleo. In the meantime, owners of Pleo can feel relieved that there is a good chance new parts such as batteries will continue to be available and their expensive toy will not end up becoming nothing more than a Jurassic paper weight.