The inspiration here is threefold:

1. After seeing the awesome sculptural work being done on the pet monster contest, I knew I wanted to try my hand at organic modeling and I wanted a way a cool way to incorporate it into a 3D print. I decided to prototype a base to work off of in the future.
2. I've been thinking about how traditional crafts can be augmented with 3D printing. I came across an article on marionettes from a 1936 Popular Science article with some great info. http://tinyurl.com/6reet4u
3. The size of the new Replicator platform! Suddenly a 16" tall marionette is doable without a million pieces.

I wanted a puppet that didn't require additional hardware, and that assembled without a lot of fuss.

I tried variations of both Zomboe's snake http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4743 and Landru's springamathing http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12053 as a replacement for traditional cloth hinges. At this point, the pieces I've prototyped on my thing-o-matic don't have nearly enough movement to serve as a marionette, and thinner renditions have been too fragile. But, I have a start of something interesting. I'm not sure if I'll continue to spend time on an all-plastic solution, or look for ways to make tyvek cloth hinges with plastic connectors. This figure has merit of his own, so I'm sharing it in the meantime.