I uploaded some videos in my gallery showing the mechanisms I came up with for head movement and leg movement for my rod puppets. You guys can check it out and give me feedback if you like. I also have this stuff on my Facebook page if you want to go there and check it out. let me know what you think.  To tell you the truth...after devising this stuff, I'm almost convinced that the simpler rod puppets have better movement than the mechanisms employed here. It was a lot of fun to build though. I'm sure I can use this in the future.

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=gallery&g2_itemId=15643
http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=gallery&g2_itemId=15640

Fantastic!

I like the movement on the legs.  I've never done mechs for leg movement on a rod puppet.  The head is not bad and it seems to work pretty well. When I've done head movement before I've used a univesal joint in the neck so that I could get both right-left and up-down movement. The bottom control is a "disc" that slides down over the support rod. Then a single thin metal bar goes up the inside of the body to just under the chin in front or to a duplicate disc at the base of the neck and attaches via a hinge. Pushing up and down gives you a nod and you can twist the disc around the support rod to get right to left movement at the same time.  Not better just different.

Hey thanks for your input Shawn. It's always appreciated. The leg movement is cool. But, it's just not practical. It's too hard to manipulate next to the playboard. Plus the lack of arm movement makes the leg movement look awkward in my opinion.  I've decided to stick with a more traditional rod puppet style for use behind the playboard.  It's easier to manipulate and actually looks more lifelike. The system you're describing sounds similar to something I've seen on Hobey Ford's website. (Ichabod Crane) I was looking at that and got inspired. I guess I went a little overboard.  I think it was a useful exercise.  However, it won't work for this particular scene. Haha!
I think I'm going to alter the script so that the leg movement I was after will take place on a tabletop. Possibly with a light curtain. So, I guess I'll need to make tabletop versions of a few of the characters as well. Got any experience doing that type puppet? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Oh...and I just noticed the little camera icon that takes you right to the gallery. That's nice!

What a great puppetbuilder you are. I saw all the pictures in your gallery. They are so nice.........

I've not had too much experience with table top puppets.  I did make the bee puppet on the left that you see in this photo.
  But that is the only one I've ever built. We kept these pretty simple really.  Walking of these puppets was controlled from a peg/rod off the back of the hips. A left right movement of this rod with a counter or clockwise twist would lift and shift the hips so the legs moved. It actually worked better on the smaller aliens then it did on bee because of the lenght of the legs.  There where a couple scenes where a second puppeteer manipulated the legs for distinct movement. I guess in reality these might be considered Bunraku puppets and not table top but I do feel the concepts are similar.

I have seen table top puppets were you stick two fingers in tubs that are attached to the top back of the legs. You can then manipulate the legs to create a walking motion.

Gompie thank you so much. You're very kind. Shawn thanks for your help. I really do appreciate you and the other folks on this site who are so willing to critic and give good advice. It's very helpful and encouraging. I'm learning so much just hanging around in here. I checked out your gallery. You've got some really cool stuff there.  The Carnival page was especially interesting to me.

I've been in the studio this weekend making heads for one of the characters in this production. Actually several of the characters will need multiple puppets built to avoid wardrobe changes. Also, they need to be different style puppets to perform their parts.  That guy who calls himself ZOOM inspired me to use wood epoxy. I got some of that stuff. and it's working great!  I've been learning to make molds and pull parts from them. Alot of fun.

I am glad we are able to help! It is always good to hear that are efforts here are working.

Amazing!! When I see all those complicated movements it makes my head hurt! I could never do something like that! But I sure appreciate all of you wonderfully talented people who can! Thanks for sharing!! Can't wait to see more!!

Put a couple images in my gallery of the tabletop versions. I also have some video on my fb page(http://www.facebook.com/StageRightPuppetProductions). I would post the video in the gallery but, they are rather large and I think you would need to download it to view it. Anyhow, it's taking a lot longer than I figured to get this production together. But, I'm still making progress.