Jurassic toy: Pleo, the new pet in town

Dinosaurs are walking on Dubai’s sands once again. Having already invaded America four months ago and the UK last December, Pleo the interactive robot dinosaur has now arrived in the UAE.

But unlike the Jurassic age Camarasaurus after which it’s loosely modelled, Pleo is a cute cuddly little thing which could make a perfect pet for lonely people in Dubai.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), Pleo is able to show a wide range of emotions from sadness to happiness and, much like a real pet, even beg for some loving. In fact it expresses itself so well that a YouTube video of reviewers testing how Pleo reacts to being dropped, smacked, choked and shaken has evoked an overwhelming response.

Are you going to get the hot new Pleo toy?

"Pick it up by its tail," prompts Rizwan Ashraf, CEO of i Robo, excitedly. The Pleo responds by flailing and crying in fear. Put it down and it shies away remorsefully until you stroke its back to make it happy. "Most customers end up naming their Pleos and treating them just like real pets.

"When I brought it here, retailers asked what category of product it was," says Ashraf, "I said it did not fall in the conventional list of categories and that it was something totally new."

The Pleo is in the hatchling phase when you buy it and may take a few days to become an adult. If you train it well, it could learn how to shake hands and do some balancing acts. "In the future we hope to make different looking Pleos to cater to the characters of different customers. Maybe even an Evil Pleo."

According to i Robo LLC, the sole distributor, no two Pleos will develop to be the same.

i Robo hopes to have the same success in the UAE as it has had in the West, where only four months after release you can find 570 Pleo videos on YouTube.

Priced at Dh1,699, Pleo can be bought at Sharaf DG, Toys R Us and Compu Me.