I got this great marionette from Dave Allen through ebay. I was impressed at the price of only 69usd and wanted to share what a great find it was. Here is a little vid I made. I have re-strung him to be a paino playing trick marionette.
Beethovens 5th

The question I had if anyone also has this type of trick marionette is how to get the head to turn. Any ideas ?

Andy

Nice use of a breakaway!  Looks like he has a single line from top center of his head.  If you want any control over the direction he is looking you would need a three point connection. Both sides at the "ears" and then at the nose.  The issue is getting that to work in concert (pun intended) with the breakaway action.  Is the pull for you head on top of the main control? You might be able to create a small "T" control bar that sets on top of the main controller if this is the case. Holding it tight to the control and tilting  the control to down and tow the audiance may get the puppet to look at them. Now I am baseing this on a couple things. One that you are using an airplane control and two that you attach the nose to the bottom of your T and the ears to each end of the cross. I think you may need to run the nose string through the main control to the bottom of your "T". A paper clip (They big ones for multiple pages) or a post on top of the main control the "T" fits onto should help hold it in place till you need to pull up on it for the action.

Cool marionette and for $69 that looks like a bargain....


As for getting its head to turn I havent seen many break-aways with a decent head turning action, especially when it comes to controlling up and down movement. Definatley agree with what Shawn is saying though... I think the main problem you would have is maintaining control over the marionette and keeping the head sat comfortably on his neck when you just want to turn his head or look up/ down. Most of the break-away marionettes I've seen whether they have a single string on the top of the head, like yours, or two strings at the temple are almost always 'loose' in terms of head action.

I have a large 14+ string skelly that is on a paddle control similar to a traditional airplane controller that has a decent head action. It's a little complicated to explain but I'll give it a go, so let me know if this makes no sense at all! You got two strings running from the ears up through a bar sitting on a hook on the main control bar. The strings are tied off on two wooden balls....So if you pull one of the wooden balls you get a tilted head pull and if you pull the whole bar you get both strings up together for a normal break away head action, you can also tilt the bar for the same effect but the wooden balls just make for a quicker/ simpler accent when performing. As far as turning the head you can tweak the strings on the ears to turn his head left or right but without the 3rd string its still kinda limited.... I would imagine a 3rd string would be viable, but I can see it being a bit of a pain as the head would kinda want to naturally detach as soon as he starts looking up and down.

Without wanting to confuse things, 'cause I'm sure I haven't explained it too well anyway.... The controller uses the same technique for the shoulders too and they actually sit on the same hook as the head on a seperate bar just below (the shoulder bar is wider so you can perform the same 'wooden ball' pulls to drop and arm/ leg on one side but no the other). What this means in terms of performance is you can grab both the bars to perform a full break away.

I can try and get some pics up of the controller I have on mine as it works really smooth, but I wouldn't really class it as a traditional stringing of the break away concept.  

Did any of that make any sense?  

Apologies for the late reply and thanks for the great ideas from both of you. The controller is an upright, I'll post some pics tomorrow when I am in the workshop. I totally understand what your both saying. The problem is really that there are two guide strings on the side of the head to the keep it sitting on the neck. Any additional string is in conflict with these. However its possible to take some tension off them so this would be where a third string may come into play. I'll experiment a little and get back to you. Without a turning head, I can see that the marionette doesn't have a good connection with the audience. I am pitching for a job for halloween and hoping this would be a possibility.

Thanks again,
Andy