A walking mechanism for a toy doll or character (10) having at least one pair of legs (20, 21). Each leg has a hip end (22, 23) and a foot end (24, 25). A pair of elliptical idler gears (90, 91) are mounted for rotation about a common shaft (60), 180 degrees out-of-phase. A second pair of elliptical gears (92, 93), each in driving relationship with a respective one of the elliptical idler gears (90, 91) are also 180 degrees out-of-phase. The hip end (22, 23) of each leg is mounted for movement with a stub shaft (118, 119) that is in a driven relationship with a respective one of the 180 degrees out-of-phase elliptical driving gears (92, 93) to produce a varying speed, generally elliptical orbital movement of the legs to simulate walking.