No Kidding, I actually made it from scratch, it's not a toy
It was quite a big project and I worked on it for several months
the biggest problem was that the tracks were customized; I made tracks like the original ones but they were tearing themselves apart. As a result, I made a more advanced track system.
Functions include:
The arms go in and out + up and down
The tracks go forward and back individually
The neck goes up and down
The speaker plays random notes
The eyes light up
All is controlled through a joystick connected to a laptop
here is a link for a website I uploaded --- it has images, videos, etc.. of the project
dhavaljani.com/walle/index.html
you can also find images (only 3) on this link
www.flickr.com/photos/rushiraj/7031066947/in/photostream/lightbox/
go left twice for other views (I'm not the guy in the picture)
just pitching an idea here --- i might make short circuit next year so if anyone wants to donate any electrical components, supplies, or accessories, please notify through this forum.
Other robots from Synthiam community
Rb550f's Okio J5 Style Robot Project
DJ's Robotis XM430 Dynamixel Arm With Open CM9.04
the arms are balsa, the box is 1/4 in plywood, the wheels are 1.5 in pine, back of the eyes are card board tubing, etc...
in short, mostly wood
the images on the website kind of show it all
there was more i wanted to do, like control it with the 3d models I made.
being that it was my first time experience (for everything), i left the idea for later
Another consideration might be to make the tracks look real yet use wheel under the body as the actual method of moving your Wall-E. This way, Wall-E would look more like the movie version but wouldn't have all of the technical challenges associated with creating the tracks from scratch.
being that my school was too cheap to even pay for a controller, we were pressed for time (i entered it in a competition for TSA)
i didn't have a router and so my teacher cut out the die (quite accurate) for both gears and we did do it like that:
i cut out the rest of the gears from the die (first time experience) and screwed up. To make up for it, i used a sander bit to make the teeth and the spacing between the gears even. After that, everything was working fine.
I think the problem was that there was only one side being supported with the L-Shaped which made the tracks so rugged and wobbly, if there were a L-Shaped bar on both sides for each track, it might have worked but it's too late to try now. The new tracks were a quick and dirty attempt which worked fine.
Being that the problem with the gear is now fixed, i might make it into a giant remote controlled car or even a tank. OR i might used it for Johhny 5 next year