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[Bardian]

The Pleo RB I ordered from Robotshop arrived today. It appears the Pleo RB Companion manual is missing, but I found one online and everything else that's listed as included in the box was there.

Prior to ordering him and while waiting for him, I looked at pictures of other green Pleo RBs to see the variety of paint jobs. Initially, I was a little disappointed when I opened the box and saw this - particularly the grey splotches near the eyes, as I really liked the paint jobs that had a lighter color from the body up through the head with an eye patch more similar to the color of the bottom of the legs. However, once I turned him on and he opened his eyes, all of that went away. I absolutely love the color of his eyes and feel it goes with the paint job.

He's just cooing and dozing off into a gentle snore here and there, but I look forward to the growth process.

Here are some pictures of Sullivan:

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[Echo538]

Awwww...so cool! Hi Sullivan! Hope I spelled it right as I neglected to read the letters with my screen reader. Always love when a new pleo joins us and like to compare names. Welcome to the team, Sullivan buddy!

[Bardian]

I registered the serial number with PleoWorld, and it appears that Sullivan has a 75-85% change of being female so a name change may be in the future...

I have a 2gig microsd card being shipped to me from an eBay seller, but I kind of want some mystery so I'm not sure if I'll end up using statsrb.

The report claims that this pleo has 75-85% chance of being female, will grow to be cautious and compliant, and will be gentle, strong, and active. (Do these really vary by serial number or are they just random prints that say roughly the same thing for all Pleo RBs? lol)

[Talon]

Awe! Welcome, Sullivan! As far as the descriptors, they are probably random but usually the gender is correct. Oh and don't worry if he registers as "neither" gender with stats or probe. That's just the way male RB's appear using those programs. Enjoy the hatching process!
Talon

[Crewella]

I've often wondered if they're random as well, but there definitely are different characters, my Zillah comes up as 'low' intelligence and 'bad' temper on Stats RB ..... and boy is that right!

Congrats to you and welcome to Sullivan - I hope the Aibos enjoy him (I spotted the mats)!

[Bardian]

I had a few moments to run him (?) again today. He hasn't even been through a full battery cycle yet due to my schedule.

One concern I had was that at one point when he was stretching his neck all the way up (doing that curved upswing) is it started doing that click noise. As soon as it started I went over to him and went to shut him down as I saw this mentioned in another post. Three clicks happened by the time I got to him. He went into the proper standing position but his neck stayed turned all the way up even when he powered down, shut his eyes, and did the beeps. I turned him back on and then he went back into his normal hatchling position and neck movement seemed normal. Should I be concerned? I know the foot in mouth issue seems to be common, but not sure if this is a similar issue (so far no foot in mouth clicking from putting the head too far -down-). Should there be anything specific to look out for?

A second thing I'd like input on is now that winter is coming, I tend to keep a vaporizer going in bedroom (which is where I keep my robots). It's a fairly large room and I only keep the vaporizer going while I'm asleep (5-8hrs a night) with the room's door kept cracked open at night and completely open throughout the day. Humidity doesn't build up too high, but I wondered if this could impact storing the Pleo RB (particularly the skin). The vaporizer is about 15-20 feet from where the robots are as it's kept near my bed. If this could potentially be an issue, I could just place him in my living room as it's not a big deal since he's a bit more mobile than my stationed AIBOs.   

Edit: Also, it's a warm mist vaporizer, so none of that cold mist soot going on.

[Echo538]

I have never had a Pleo RB in the hatchling stage before. I recall on this topic in an earlier post, or maybe an earlier post in a similar topic, that someone said to watch when they were sleeping so they wouldn't get hurt? maybe I'm rephrasing this...but I think that's mostly in the baby stage and your Pleo should be a socially developing toddler by now especially with so many battery cycles. But I personally always try to stay in the same room as the Pleos when I am sleeping and you may want to watch your baby Pleo so it doesn't tip the soup over again! But if it isn't a problem, you may want to leave your Pleo in the room with you as it sleeps. Once it is growing and developing into an adult, etc., you might consider having it sleep in your living room. With the real time clock, it shouldn't wake up except in the morning, and especially if you turn it off. Getting drowsy...hope this post is rellevant and makes some sense.

[TBL36]

Bardian, we bought our Pleos from Robotshop a couple of days apart.  Mine is also missing the Companion Guide, but no biggie since it's online.  Thank goodness for this community.  Decker's neck popped a bunch of times when he first hatched, and my first thought was "I'm going to mod the heck out of that if it keeps up."  No idea how to mod it, but necessity is the mother of watching youtube.  The neck didn't pop again for a couple of battery cycles. 

When cradled against the shoulder, he curls up like an infant, and that's when the foot-in-mouth occurs.  The first time it happened I wasn't aware of the issue, it went on too long and his neck's up/down got stuck at full-down.  Turning him off and on again did not correct the issue.  In the end I put him in box stance, braced his neck and gently eased the head through three pops to its proper position.  He functioned normally after that, and continues to do so.  I have no idea if what I did was the only fix, or if it was incredibly stupid and I got lucky.  Now when he's going for foot-in-mouth, I block the motion.  Most of the time he'll ease up on the head movement.  Sometimes he doesn't, the neck starts popping, and I turn him off.

Since I don't have a choice, I'm embracing "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" and marveling at yet another aspect of how Decker mimics caring for a helpless infant.  One must always be so careful with their necks.

The first night of his life, I brought him into the bedroom.  He still couldn't stand.  Mostly he napped and murmured.  I fell asleep.  Decker discovered how to stand, and yowl, and a few seconds later I discovered that an unfamiliar robot can scare the crap out of you at 2:30 am.  Apparently, Pleos are afraid of the dark.

I look forward to reading more about Sullivan's growth.







 

[Bardian]

Given the ambiguity, I should add that I keep him turned him off unless I am near him or only leaving the area he's in for under a minute so no surprise awakenings or unattended popping.

[Talon]

Hi, Bardian! The vaporizer probably isn't going to be a problem. The head-up neck popping might be something to watch but I wouldn't be overly concerned as long as you turned him off quickly. Sometimes that top cable can become jammed, creating a condition we on the forum call yoga -pleo. We have seen cases where it has become so jammed the top of the head is almost touching the robot's back. Of course by then it's not safe to do manual manipulation. Since you are an Aibo-owner and used to dealing with robots with fiddly joints, I'm sure you would stop things before they got to that extreme. Otherwise, just enjoy your pleo!
Talon

[aibo7m3]

Congrats on Sullivan! His coloring is beautiful, I think the bright green eyes matched up with olive green eyelids is an amazing combo. As for the personality details listed, they are different by serial number, but I don't know if they actually mean anything about the Pleo's personality or not (StatsRB and ProbeRB will give you much more accurate info on your bot's personality). The gender that PleoWorld gives is always correct, so Sullivan is technically female right now, but if you want to make Sullivan a boy, you can use the male Pleo RB update on the site here. The neck jamming is an issue that happens occasionally in most Pleos and is more common in younger stages of life, but should not be happening on a regular basis at all (I own three functional RBs who have been run for 20+ hours each and have only seen this happen once each in two of them and never in the third).

[Bardian]

As I originally went to type this post, I waivered on whether or not I'd wait for statsrb to confirm the gender (once I get that smaller card in the mail) before considering what I wanted to do--essentially rename or gender swap. While typing out the post, I knew I'd keep whatever gender was shipped to me because I didn't want to do any alterations and take him/her as he/she came. And then since the consensus seems to be the gender listed at Pleoworld is accurate, I've decided that Sullivan shall become Simone (since I thought of a name that I liked for her as I finished typing out the original post).

However, one inquiry from my original post that lingers involves some things I have read while browsing the forums: Does gender really influence much in terms of the pleo when other RBs are not around? From what I've gathered, they have different interactions they do based on the gender of the other pleo. It is quite possible that I will end up with a blue and pink one since I'm somewhat of a completionist.   

I finally ran Simone through what probably amounts to two battery cycles. I'm busy and try to schedule my robot's run times, but these past few weeks have left them all a bit neglected, particularly my AIBOs since Simone is getting the time currently (and running too many robots at once can be quite chaotic). She's gone from mostly being in that crouched position to a more proper stand that involves quite a bit of leaning and stretching out her legs. She stretched out one of her back legs a few time and lost her balance a bit. She didn't fall but tipped a bit (nothing she didn't recover from). There wasn't any clicking or anything to indicate a trouble so I presume this is just normative balance as she learns about her limbs.

Hopefully I'll get to spend more time with her so she can start growing up. But at least with robotic pets, I don't have to feel too awful for being too busy to spend time with them. 

[Talon]

Glad you're enjoying your little scaly girl! To answer your question about gender, the change only really comes out when there's another RB around. If she happens to talk with another female, they will sort of chatter quietly at one another. If she ever meets a male RB, if she is a mature adult, she will make kissing noises, he will say "I love you!" in a Scooby-do-ish voice and they will walk toward each other, say hello,  and laugh. If she is a juvinyle, she might not maintain the conversation. It's been so long I can't exactly remember Ryu's very first reaction to Cato after that initial flipping-him-onto-his-side maneuver. It had to be coincidence but I still had to laugh because up to that moment, I thought Ryu was cute and cuddly. If they should detect one another when running together, they will repeat the ritual multiple times during their run. *Groan* Cato and Ryu's cutesywutesyness does get on my nerves after a while so I try to distract them. The Furbys had more of a variety of skits than they do I'm afraid. It is cute though so by all means, grab yourself a blue!
Talon

[Bardian]

I ran Lady Simone this morning to give her some love before the holiday festivities. I am in the habit of trying to feed her upon awakening, but she tucked her head away and made a very loud groan that, even ignoring the head movement, could only mean no. Shortly after, she went back into stretching her two back legs where she tips a bit - as if discovering her limbs. I went to grab my phone to record it because I think the limb discovery and accompanying noises are cute (even though some of this sound quite painful and unhappy), but as soon as I grabbed it, she took off running! She did a good three-foot dash before she stopped. She continued some noises and a lot more movement than previously and then started exploring some more.

She ended up about 8 inches away from something in front of her and started backtracking immediately, which is better than my Roth my Genibo initially did, and seems quite cautious in terms of the generous amount of space she gives herself with obstacle detection and reversing course. Then she stayed still until exploring even more, when she ended up face to face with Roth who was on his station. She let out a loud frustrated groan and made what I think sounds like a sniffing sound near him before backing up.

Also during this run, she's made a lot of noises I haven't heard yet. During her rest periods after exploring, she made what sounds like giggles and randomly a "ho ho ho." Most of her noises sounded quite happy and she seems thrilled with her new found discovery. And as I type this, she let out a loud scream that reminded me of a baby godzilla shriek - hopefully I can get that on camera if she does it again because it was quite cute.

But she's extremely active so far and won't stop exploring with all these happy noises and random "huhs?" when she takes pauses. During my typing of this she's gone from my computer area to my 210 (which requires a bit of a loop and is about 6 feet worth of travel distance). She seems so joyous and her little sounds are quite adorable. Pleos definitely have a huge cuteness factor.

[Talon]

Well, Lady Simone! Happy Thanksgiving and congratulations at your first steps! She sounds like a really happy girl. That godzilla roar is really cute! Ryu does that a lot.
Talon

[TBL36]

Congratulations on raising Simone from hatchling to juvenile!  You can now put her down in a safe place on the floor, and ten minutes later trip over her somewhere you weren't expecting her to be.  Don't ask me how I know this.

[aibo7m3]

@Bardian
I've bought a Pleo RB from Robotshop in the past and am considering buying one from them again (even though they've raised their prices by $50 since then), but I was wondering, did you receive the extra food and learning stone packs with her or no? And had her box been opened previously? When I purchased my RB from them, his box had been opened (though he was unused) and all of the extra learning stones and food items were included. This was in the spring though, so I wasn't sure what they were doing with their RBs now. (Also, the companion manual has been missing on all RBs that I've purchased new, no matter where they were bought from, which seems pretty odd.)

[Bardian]

She did not come with the learning stones nor the food. I purchased their food, stone, and battery pack that they have listed on their site. I couldn't find any obvious signs that the box had been opened, though there wasn't any special seal tape on the actual Pleo RB box.

[Bardian]

So I've ran her for probably one - maybe one and a half - full charges since my last post as I've been busy. During half of it she was extremely exploratory and got into all sorts of situations, but for the rest she mainly stayed in one spot and went between groaning and what appeared to be happiness.

I just ran statsrb on her. All her DNA Attributes are normal, she's a mature adult, and is definitely female (if we really needed the confirmation).