Posted in Design, History, Live pets, Plush Pets, Robotic Pets on Jun 15th, 2008
A recent front page Wall Street Journal article, “When Dogs and Robots Collide, Somebody Needs a Talking To”. Wall Street Journal. 11 June 2008. Page A1 by Andrew LaVallee talks about the interactions of “real” dogs with robotic dogs, and with Roomba vacuums. In response to this article, we created a page, “Pets and Other […]
Posted in Design, Plush Pets, Robotic Pets on Nov 26th, 2007
Back on 21 June 2007 Ugobe launched PleoWorld.com to continue ramping up interest for their interactive dinosaur to be released late this year. Pleo is a realistic robotic dinosaur that will evolve through life stages and and develop a unique personality based on your interaction with him. He is modeled after a one week old […]
Posted in Design, Plush Pets, Robotic Pets on Nov 26th, 2007
Wowwee’s “Alive” series includes a Chimpanzee “So Real, He’s Unreal” per their website. The chimp is actually a bit of a talking head (the product is a model of a chimp from the top of the shoulders up.) It features realistic animal behavior, mood dependent behavior, and responds to stimuli with mood specific animations and […]
Posted in Business, Design, History, Plush Pets, Virtual Communities on Oct 9th, 2007
With everybody imaginable jumping in to follow Webkinz’s successful model of selling plush pets as tokens to enter an online community, Neopets has announced they will be creating a plush pet entry path to their virtual community as well. Is this the first case of digital reverse evolution? (Going from a virtual community to an […]
Posted in Business, Design, Plush Pets, Virtual Communities on Oct 8th, 2007
Emily Bryson York published a story titled The Hottest Thing in Kids Marketing? Imitating Webkinz on Advertising Age 8 Oct 2007. She opened with a quiz to guess where you would find a Webkiz toy, the answer was tossed aside and forgotten in the corner of the bedroom. Her article is right on the theme […]
Posted in Business, Design, Plush Pets, Virtual Communities on Oct 1st, 2007
Hasbro announced it will be entering the “Digital Plush Arena” with Virtual Interactive Pets (VIP)Â in a 24 Sept 2007 press release. Their already successful “Littlest Pet Shop” line will be launching five pets bound for the virtual world: a dog, cat, turtle, penguin, and a panda. The “VIP” will be launched in mid October […]
Posted in Business, Design, Plush Pets, Virtual Communities on Sep 18th, 2007
MGA Entertainment’s MyePets follows the Webkinz model. You buy a plush pet in a retail store, then go online to MyePets.com, log on using the secret number on your pet’s bone, then go to the adoption center, meet the virtual version of your plush pet, give it a name, decorate your own private room, then […]
Posted in Business, Design, Dolls, Plush Pets, Virtual Communities on Aug 17th, 2007
Recent times have been very good for Mattel. A 16 August 2007 Associated Press story points out sales of their Transformer and Spider man toys have been boosted by movies, plus they are still reaping sales from Pixar Animation Studio’s “Cars” movie. Barbie sales are anticipated to pick up with the new MP3 player. Earlier, […]
Posted in Design, Plush Pets on Jul 26th, 2007
Panasonic showed a new fiber at the Tokyo Fiber 2007 Senseware Exposition in late June 2007. Other reports indicate it could have been introduced at a similar show in Omotesando in late April. Panasonic’s new patent pending No-Constraints carpet available in white, brown, and a combination of white/black that looks like a skunk’s tail comes […]
Posted in Business, Plush Pets, Virtual Communities on Jul 26th, 2007
Back in the early days we thought caring for a virtual pet could be a training ground for caring for a “real” pet. Now we see things have gone one step further down the ladder. A bookstore in Fairhope Alabama is now offering a workshop on how to care for a virtual pet, more specifically, […]
