I have recently been to a BMW plant and watching the robot slaves weld together cars for us is a spiritual experience. I highly recommend a visit to a car plant to see the robots performing their "dance".
ThinkGeek now offers a smaller version of a industrial robot arm for your desk.
The Edge Robotic Arm Kit has five axes of robotic movement that you control with a wired remote.

Command the gripper to open and close, wrist motion of 120 degrees, an extensive elbow range of 300 degrees, base rotation of 270 degrees, base motion of 180 degrees, vertical reach of 15 inches, horizontal reach of 12.6 inches, and lifting capacity of 100g. You need to assemble the Edge Robotic Arm Kit. No soldering is required, but you will need to be able to follow directions carefully. Assembly time is about 2 hours.
The fun robot kit is available for a very affordable price of $49.99 on ThinkGeek.