Ugobe Folds, Pleo Goes the Way of the Dinosaur

You can blame it on the grim economy, or you can blame it on the fact that Ugobe’s entire business depended on plush robotic dinosaurs. Either way, the Pleo has antagonised its last Labrador.

The company has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy—the kind of bankruptcy that’s most like a tremendous meteor—and fired all of its workers. This is sad news for Pleo fans and horrible news for the now-ex-employees, but one part of the report was surprising: Over 100,000 Pleos, which retail at $US350, were sold in the last year alone.

Existing Pleos will be left to act out a sad, allegorical version of The Land Before Time, in which, having seen their mother (Ugobe) killed by a T-Rex (bankruptcy proceedings), they will, uhh, sit unused in a closet until their batteries start leaking. The later sequels were kind of weird, OK? [Idaho Statesman]