Believe it or not, this was a dead-serious project by the US Army to allow troops to carry gear over rough terrain and through jungles.  They actually built a prototype that looked like an iron elephant that had tangled with a computer mainframe, but it proved impractical because of limitations of the hydraulic systems, driver fatigue while carrying out even the simplest of tasks, and the tendency of the machine to do the Hokey Cokey without provocation.

I'm not sure if this was the inspiration for the American walking machine, but it is one of the first examples:  the Martian fighting machine from H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds.  Not only could these stilt-walking pressure cookers lay waste to Europe in double time, but they could goosestep to beat the Wehrmacht any day.

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