Pleo Will Be Right Back!

 

A couple of months back, I was very sad to hear about Pleo and its company, Ugobe, being the latest victim of the sour economy and extended worldwide credit crunch.  The inventor of Pleo and CEO of Ugobe, Caleb Chung (also a good inventor friend of mine), easily the leading visionary in the toy industry, will undoubtedly reshape and reform himself to adjust to the loss of his company and robotic pet.  He already has announced that he will be the director of ArtsWest School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a Boise based company that he and several other investors bought out around the same time Ugobe filed for bankruptcy and liquidation.

Today, it was announced that the original overseas manufacturer of Pleo, Jetta Company Limited, based in China and Hong Kong, has bought the intellectual property rights and other Ugobe assets at the bankruptcy sale occurring a few weeks back.  So the great news is that Pleo has not become extinct with the meteoric-like slam from this past year's recession; it will live to continue to walk the earth and amaze its owners, with the complex help of its 14 servo joints, an on-board camera and an SD card. 

This is great news for the people who bought the original toy.  It sounds like they should be able to purchase replacement parts, battery chargers and other necessary accessories from Jetta Company Limited in the near future.  It is especially great news for all the people around the world, young and old alike, who will be exposed to the toy for the first time and will be left in awe from its amazingly high form and function.