little 8 supplies

Hi there. I'm surprised you had trouble finding those parts, especially online. The 7805 voltage regulator is a very common part -- if you're in the US, as it sounds that you are, any local Radio Shack should carry plenty of them (it's one of the few electronics components they still bother to carry).

The switch could be hard to find with those metal 'whiskers' attached. The part of the switch that actually activates is a small plastic button on the upper face of the black plastic body of the switch, and the metal 'whisker' just presses down on that when it bumps into something. You can see one of those switches glued into the front of my robot, Feivel:

You should be able to find them in that form in online shops like Digikey or Mouser, and possibly even in a store like Radio Shack. I actually got that one in the picture (and two more) out of the old computer mouse that also became the body for my robot. They're on the circuit board under the mouse buttons and sometimes under the wheel too. A few seconds with a soldering iron and you can liberate two or three from the average mouse. As far as the feeler, you could always cut up an old credit card into thin strips and glue a strip to the switch so that it activates it when it runs into something. Just an idea. Good luck.

I took a look at Sparkfun, because I thought I saw them there:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=107

Also, Solarbotics has another regulator than the 7805:

http://www.solarbotics.com/products/lm2937/

I haven't got any personal experience with this one, but it seems to be better than the 7805.

An, as CowGod writes, old retired hardware is a good source for components of all kinds.