Hi all,
For my companys Christma Production I need a whole chess set of puppets, almost identical (or a close as it can be) to the typical chess peices. The cast need to be able to control them through an opening in the back of the head, and they need to be fairly low cost as there is a lot to make with a very small budget as most of the money is being spent on ligthing. If you have any suggestions on how I can achieve this mammouth task please let me know as I need to start building in July or the cast will not have them for rehearsals in September.
Please follow this link to see a prototype I attempted.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff!

I think I would go with foam characters, but I am thinking some of those pieces are going to be intricate!  You have a task cut out for you.  Do you have to make two complete sets?  Another idea you could do quite a bit easier is a flat card type picture with a moving mouth mech on the back.  But it would be one dimensional. Do they have to be 3-D?

I found some links to foam lawn chess games and pieces. I thought this might give you some perspective into what size and shape you might be looking for. It is not impossible but will require a bit of time. Will you have help with building these puppets. What type budget are you working with?

http://www.megachess.com/pfoam.htm

http://www.megachess.com/pmo48i.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_6382900_build-yard-chess-sets.html

Whoa, that sounds like some task! Welcome here!

Sorry I have been out of the loop for a while. Yes they have to be 3D and there has to be atleast both kings, both queens, 4 pawns, and then 1 of every other peice, as they are the only characters will speaking roles, but the director wanted all then ensemble to have a peice as well, I will dicsuss with him the possibility of 2D peices for the non speaking roles, it would also provide us with more room backstage and allow us to spend a bit more money of music.

An option is to cast them out of a self-skinning foam mixture, where a 2-part liquid setup is mixed up and possibly a catalyst added, then allowed to cream and set inside a mold of each respective chess piece. From there you essentially have a giant piece of foam rubber ready to go in the right shape, all that needs to be done is to have a mouth mechanism carved into the foam and then each piece covered and have mouthplate, eyes, etc added.