After trying a few options I decided to go with a stylised design for the figure. The body is a prototype made from Lime wood with only the front carved so far.
For orientation, the torso is wearing an overall. The circles are buttons, not eyes. The had has yet to be designed.
The legs are very thin but, being made form beech wood are surprisingly strong. The articulations are in the hips and knees to allow the figure to bend slightly.
Also seen are two more realistic figures that I decided to discard.
The controls will fit in the body and a cavity has yet to be designed to fit them.
Next job is to design the head and eyes and their internal control mechanism

Having designed the figure at the back of the picture above in Blender I looked around for other software and came across Moment of Inspiration. This software is easier to get into than blender. It can be used for semi-organic shapes but the head will have to be designed in Blender or Sculpt.
The body would have been much quicker to carve by hand but CAD allows for much greater accuracy.