Homemade WALL-E and Eve toys

I think that Harry is not unusual in going through phases where he just wants to watch the same film or television programme over and over again. Among other things so far we've had Button Moon, Peppa Pig and Dumbo. At the moment it's WALL-E, which is a lovely film, with the important message that it is much better to be out and about enjoying the world than sitting in front of a screen (yes, I do appreciate the irony here).

After the excesses of Easter I was looking at a discarded plastic Easter egg and an idea formed in my mind...a quick coat of paint and we had an Eve! I sanded it first so that the paint would stick, and I used a couple of coats of acrylic paint. The arms are just made from fun foam.

Harry was thrilled, small children are easily pleased, but then of course a WALL-E was needed, and this presented a few more challenges. I googled for images and decided that it was best to simplify and focus on the key parts - the square body, triangular tracks, the eyes and the arms. I found an old tin of nuts and bolts left behind in the garage, and some black screw cover things that I thought made reasonable eyes. They are stuck onto a lollipop stick which is inserted into a cut down cardboard box. It isn't glued down so it can be moved up and down.

The tracks are made from a strip of fun foam with the nuts glued inside, and the arms are more lollipop sticks with fun foam hands. I drew on a few details with black pen. Luckily WALL-E is quite scruffy anyway, so it doesn't matter that the finish isn't great.

Harry loves them, and I've spotted him acting out scenes from the film with them. They aren't that sturdy, and they probably won't last very long, but I'm really pleased with them! If I was to make another one (which is a distinct possibility) then I would try and make the front open up, as this is the part of WALL-E's functioning which really fascinates Harry. He would also like the wheels to go round, but I'm not sure how I could manage that!