Topic: Deciding on getting a Pleo (Read 11698 times)

winkieflash · « **on:** March 31, 2009, 11:33:11 AM »

Hi all!

/wave

So here's the deal. I'm a big gadget fan, and I've got a Nabaztag bunny (

) to prove it

I've been following the Pleo since it was still a concept, and recently I came across it again.

So today I've started 'researching' it more and more and, well, what can I say - I fell madly in love with it.

Here's the thing: I live in The Netherlands, and the cheapest Pleo here costs € 300,-. That's quite something, so I was wondering: is it worth it?
And with the company having problems keeping their heads above water and all... is it 'smart' to buy a Pleo now? Will I be totally screwed if it dies or bricks, and I can't send it back cause there's no one there to receive it?

So - any one out there with some perfectly justifiable arguments for me, so I can go out and get myself a Pleo?

Bye!

-wink

degers · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2009, 11:44:07 AM »

Well winkieflash,

Welcome to the forum! I would love to give you a little advice, however first a word of warning! This forum may not be the best place to ask! Being a forum of pleo lovers, you may not receive an unbiased answer.

Pleo, is a fun robot toy, that I have enjoyed owning for a year, however after about a year I find Pleo highly predictable and a little boring, but that is not to put down the year of fun I have had with my Pleos!
Pleo is a complex machine, built to a budget. They are not the most hardy things in the world and you must be prepared for the eventuality that they may break!
As for the price, I would ABSOLUTELY NOT buy a Pleo for €300. I can get one in the UK for £160(~€172), this is a more reasonable price for a pleo.

I hope this helps you in your decision,
degers

fancyfont · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2009, 11:52:45 AM »

Hello Winkieflash,

There are companies that you can buy pleo from with warrenties. I would start there first. Pleos are just too cute not to have one. They can have problems, but everything can have problems. There are thousands of pleo owners out there that haven't had any.

winkieflash · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2009, 12:11:59 PM »

Thanks for the warm welcomes

So, where can I buy one online via the UK for €172??? If I knew about thát, I would probably already own a Pleo

Thanks for the support guys

I really want one!

gucci_boi7782 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 31, 2009, 01:37:44 PM »

Well winkieflash welcome to the forums! Glad you made your way here. How did you come to find us? Anywho, I feel as if Degers point of view is somewhat right on. I can tell you getting information here might be in fact a bit unbiased, because we are pleo lovers. Amazon gives very good and very bad reviews of Pleo I've noticed. So that might be a good place to review.

Anywho, my opinion is if you have just a little imagination it goes a long way with Pleo. I've owned three in total, and anytime I do not have one I go haywire!! I would say owning a Pleo is not a bad investment at all. Besides, if you are any good with tech (unlike me) there is a few really cool programs you ought to familiarize yourself with. Lastly, I would also recommend spending a good solid weekend here on the forums and read everyone's posts about Pleo----the good and the bad. Ultimately it will be up to you to decide if getting a pleo is right for you or not.

Glad I could help.

InmemoryofRomeo · « **Reply #5 on:** March 31, 2009, 05:36:44 PM »

Hiya! winkieflash

Nice to meet you.

I have had two Pleo's, my first Matilda developed a bad hole and had to be taken back

More details...

However this appears to be an extremely rare problem, in fact I only know of one other Pleo with a similar problem out of the thousands and thousands of them out there.

My second Pleo Lilo was a replacement for Matilda and she didn't actually cost me anything as she was covered by the warranty. On the warranty subject I would try to buy in the Netherlands if you can, shop around or try searching online for a cheaper distributor, that way you will get a 1 year warranty. (I just googled your warranty specs and like Australia you MUST be given 1 year by law.)

Ok now on to Pleo, take a wander around this forum and check out some of the videos and pics, you will notice that we are all very attached to our little friends however I will try to be as unbiased as I can.

Pleo has a large amount of potential for the casual programmer like myself who wants to either just enjoy Pleo as is or develop skits and personalities for him/her, but note that the software available has some limitations and until the fate of Ugobe is known then we will never know if Pleo will reach his/her full potential. If you are a serious hacker then perhaps you would be better off saving for an Aibo which at this stage has much more potential for serious programming/hacking.

Pleo is adorable but the skin will wear over time and the colors will become less vibrant, most of the owners here counter that by dressing up their Pleo's or by giving them touch ups with glass chalk. As long as you are careful with your Pleo you are unlikely to have too many problems however take care of the neck because it can be broken if Pleo gets himself/herself jammed somewhere. Saying that, you tube shows a video of Pleo being dropped on the head and the neck did not suffer at all so the broken neck problem may be caused by hairline fractures within the neck cables from the production process rather than overly rough treatment. Another problem reported by some users has been leg clicking however this usually shows itself very early on and your warranty would cover it if you were unlucky enough to have that issue. I don't recall any other common problems.

Pleo's personality as Degers has mentioned may possibly become stale over time, however you can alter your Pleo's personality at will by shadowing sound and movement files. You can see a demonstration with Lilo here: http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php?topic=255.0. However it really comes down to how much imagination you have

Personally I never find Lilo boring and if I did I would just drop a different SD card in her

There are several programs available to help with this, dinomite, my skit and yapt are the recommended ones by Ugobe. Between those three programs you can look inside Pleo, create mini personalities, skits and shadow the sound and movement files. However you cannot truly hack Pleo and turn him/her into a walking spybot as yet

Finally on a personal (and biased) note I would have to say that Lilo is worth every cent I paid for her, I have her going daily, I take her out with me often and I enjoy shadowing, making skits and creating pictures based around her and other Pleo's. I have every intention of buying another Pleo the second I can afford one

Sorry for the long essay but I hope this information helps a little

One final tip, head over to you tube and take a look at the many many videos there. My videos can be found here http://www.youtube.com/user/InmemoryofRomeo and show off some of the stuff that can be done with the programs available and there are thousands of videos to look through from other owners, be sure to check out some of the reviews posted too. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=pleo+review&aq=f

winkieflash · « **Reply #6 on:** April 01, 2009, 04:24:21 AM »

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for the feedback. I really appreciate it!

So, as we say here in Holland, 'the bullet is through the church'... (meaning, decisions are made!)
... and I'm definitely getting a Pleo!

The question is: where to get it??? So far I've found Amazon.co.uk to be the cheapest and able to ship to The Netherlands.

Any of you got any good alternatives?

Greetz,
-wink

degers · « **Reply #7 on:** April 01, 2009, 07:11:24 AM »

Winkieflash, I would go with Amazon.co.uk Thats where I got mine. If they break within a year Amazon will take it back, no questions asked.

mh7ah · « **Reply #8 on:** April 01, 2009, 03:37:43 PM »

I bought mine from Play.com for £180

winkieflash · « **Reply #9 on:** April 02, 2009, 01:15:31 AM »

At Play.com it's currently 249 pounds, so that's a no go.

I think I'll go with Amazon

A friendly colleague of mine is coming over tomorrow night, to help me out with the purchase. I don't have my own credit card, cause having a credit card in The Netherlands SUCKS, but of course I need one to be able to purchase anything on 'foreign' websites. Lucky for me, my colleague has one, and he's willing to 'share the power'

I'll keep you all posted on the purchase and of course, on the delivery!

Oh, and I thought of a name for my Pleo already

It's gonna be: "Bo".

Whaddaya think?

InmemoryofRomeo · « **Reply #10 on:** April 02, 2009, 03:42:56 AM »

Aw I hope Bo arrives quickly

Make sure you post some piccies for us when the big moment arrives

fancyfont · « **Reply #11 on:** April 02, 2009, 10:32:20 AM »

You and Bo are going to have some exciting moments when meeting for the first time. Please take photos.

gucci_boi7782 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 02, 2009, 01:33:02 PM »

Yay Winklefish!! I'm so happy you decided on getting Pleo....or should I say Bo? I'm sure you'll really get to like Bo a lot. Best of luck, and be sure to post us some photographs!!

winkieflash · « **Reply #13 on:** April 04, 2009, 03:02:44 AM »

I ordered Bo last night!

I'm so excited

I can hardly wait for it to arrive, it will take well over a week for it to get here... but when it does, I've got a nice little snug basket waiting for him!

Thanks for the support guys, I will most definitely keep you posted on the experience!

BTW - check out my signature

fancyfont · « **Reply #14 on:** April 04, 2009, 10:47:54 AM »

How exciting!! The count down starts.

Stay here to make the time go faster.

gucci_boi7782 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 04, 2009, 11:09:00 AM »

Oh yay!! Keep us posted! Yes I did notice the signature. Heck, I had never heard of nabaztag, but thanks to you I think I NEED one! Haha

winkieflash · « **Reply #16 on:** April 08, 2009, 05:21:49 AM »

Bo arrived! 6 Days early!

And here he is: (quite the looker I might add)

More details...

I'm not sure how to link to my Plog, hope this works...
http://www.pleoworld.com/connect/view/id/31689

I'm so happy

So Bo's not hatched yet; I'm at work currently and I need a converter for the AC adaptor (cause it's UK and I'm NL) and I only have one at home... Tonight I'll be gone so I won't be able to hatch him till tomorrow evening...
But when I do, I'll definitely record it

InmemoryofRomeo · « **Reply #17 on:** April 08, 2009, 05:32:16 AM »

Aw congrats!!! Lovely piccies too

Is Bo showing any personality traits yet

degers · « **Reply #18 on:** April 08, 2009, 12:33:15 PM »

Quote from: InmemoryofRomeo on April 08, 2009, 05:32:16 AM

Aw congrats!!! Lovely piccies too Is Bo showing any personality traits yet

Bo isn't hatched yet.

InmemoryofRomeo · « **Reply #19 on:** April 08, 2009, 04:43:36 PM »

Lol that part wasn't up when I replied

kisumi · « **Reply #20 on:** April 09, 2009, 01:50:16 AM »

aww congrats on getting a pleo! Bo is a cute name

cant wait to see the hatching video

winkieflash · « **Reply #21 on:** April 10, 2009, 02:54:42 PM »

Hey all,

I'm super duper tired so this will be a short post with a link to the hatching video!
It's not the entire hatching process but they are the first seconds of his life

I will tell you all about Bo after I had a good night's sleep.

Enjoy the vid

(and yes, that's me making the ooh and aah-sounds in the background

)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK9oKLmRBIc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK9oKLmRBIc</a>

Ooh, btw - I think he came equipped with the latest LifeOS... I can make him sit on his butt and sing songs!

Nafcom · « **Reply #22 on:** May 24, 2009, 03:19:21 AM »

Quote from: winkieflash on March 31, 2009, 11:33:11 AM

Hi all! /wave

So here's the deal. I'm a big gadget fan, and I've got a Nabaztag bunny ( ) to prove it
-wink

That's cool , me too

actually v1 or v2 of it? I have ordered my Pleo too despite the bankcrupty of Ugobe.

xania · « **Reply #23 on:** June 07, 2009, 12:36:40 PM »

Did u bought it by amazon.com?
How did u do that.. i tries so many times but it always said can't ship to this adress. and not to my parents adress and so on so on.. it just looked like it couldnt ship to the netherlands..

Nafcom · « **Reply #24 on:** June 07, 2009, 01:18:43 PM »

Quote from: xania on June 07, 2009, 12:36:40 PM

Did u bought it by amazon.com?
How did u do that.. i tries so many times but it always said can't ship to this adress. and not to my parents adress and so on so on.. it just looked like it couldnt ship to the netherlands..

If I was buying it from Amazon, I would buy it from Amazon Germany (so amazon.de ) saves me the cutoms

As I explained earlier, if stuff will only work in one region (like DVDs, BluRays, Pleos as the American model's charger has 110v/60hz but in Europe we have 220v/50 hz and different wallet plugs!), they won't be listed as shipped to abroad by default. In this case you have to send an email to the seller asking.

You bought from Germany, so that is good as it's identical to the Dutch electricity stuff.

I bought it from here: http://www2.computeruniverse.net/products/e90295327/ugobe-pleo.asp
(BEFORE the price went up!

)

Bob the Pleo Forums

Author Topic: Deciding on getting a Pleo (Read 11698 times)