Designing(?) puppets/automata

This is a rough drawing for a puppet. It's not very imaginative, but I quite liked it. I used the metaphor of a puppet for mental health issues some time ago - the idea of someone else - or another, less controlled part of your head pulling the strings.
This pictures was based on an artist's lay figure. I have the notion that I could use that at least as a prototype and maybe as a way of getting the rough shape and articulation. They can be brought now for around £3-4 in the shops, and almost you couldn't buy the wood for that. Certainly it saves a few hours of cutting and shaping.
Right now I'm not quite sure how to do the joints. Just stringing would mean that they would turn in unnatural poses, so either a cloth or leather hinge comes to mind.
I did get a couple of smaller figures to play with, but I think that they will be too small to work with and possibly too light. But I'm going to give them a go once I've figured the articulation though I shall replace the heads.
Really I need to be turning paper into tangibles. Perhaps that should be next week's task.