It is coming together nicely.  Gluing the straps to the foam seems to be working.  Only fear is the back straps.  While 2 inches are glued to a piece of wood, the bottome part of the strap was glued to poster board (covering foam) and has already come loose.  Doesn't look like the section on wood is going anywhere, but hoping it lasts all day tommorrow.



I am considering this a test and plan to build another, more puppety version.  I will start with a wooden frame where I can screw foam panels into place, making them interchangeable.  Made a lot of mistakes with this one and am amazed with how fragile that pink foam really is. 

Turned out pretty good!  Yep the pink foam can be fragile but what you can do is glue a layer of either canvas or heavy cotton to it wrapping around the edges to the back. Always just used plain white glue watered down a bit to make it easier to spread with a paint brush. This does two things. One it gives you a surface that is a bit easier to paint that wont chip or scrape off. It also helps protect from dings.  Really can extend the life of the finished product.  Used this method and many set pieces for puppet shows and it holds up really well. 

Had a blast and took a lot of pictures.  Will be asking a lot of questions as I move forward with Tardis 2.0.  Suspenders out and backpack in, plus different foam on the front for movable mouth.  Plus 100 different things that I did wrong on this one.  Also learned that I don't choose the name, I wanted to be Tardy the Tardis.  Everyone kept calling me "The Happy Tardis."  :D  Anyway, will leave you with a Tardis Dance Off...

I don't know exactly what you have envisioned for a moving mouth, but an older thread might give a couple possibilities.

On this thread Loveable Puppet Pals was generous enough to post a simple moving mouth clock diagram that might be adapted to your needs. (Look for reply number 3)

Darryl suggested to the originator of the thread that a mouth like Bunson Honeydew might fit his needs. Perhaps that would work for you as well. I don't know how to make that, but maybe someone in the puppet-making universe can lead you in the right direction.

For the Bunson, a simple way could be hinging the bottom of the mouth, then running a fishing line through the top of the head/jaw and to the top of the mouth/lip. The idea being that the fishing line is taut to keep the mouth shut and then you just release the line for an open mouth. To close you just pull the thread down and taut again. Then you have a line running to the jaw though so it's not as pretty as a method were you can't see the mechanism. Still, it's a simple method...


Love the Tardis; it's a great job for a first go and I think 2.0 will come out amazing!

Thanks

What I envision is similar to this refrigerator, which looks similar to Bunson.



Making of video:

Sounds like some experimentation is in order