PHM Custom Eridian (sort of) puppet & feedback appreciated :)
Hi 
This is my first post on the forums so let’s see if I can figure out how this works . . .
I got the latest “What’s on your workbench?” email and I’ve been working on an all-new-territory project recently and figured I’d share it here. I’ve also had a problem displaying him that I am currently trying to work through.
This lil guy has been the ruler of my workbench for the past three months. If you've seen the movie Project Hail Mary, then you probably know what he is. His name is Rubble. I landed on that name after combining “Rocky” and “trash”, as I used a lot of scrap materials to build him that I would have otherwise thrown away. This project involved a lot of new stuff to complete, as I've never built articulated joints, and I've also never painted or sculpted rock before.
[This picture of him standing without any support is a fluke, he hasn't done it since.] After seeing Project Hail Mary in theaters, I fell in love with Rocky and knew I had to have an Eridian companion of my own. This project was originally going to be my first puppet attempt. I only got about halfway there, but I’m incredibly grateful for all of the amazing people who did lessons on puppetry for newbies like me. It helped a ton! This guy is fully rigged with joints for his legs, but I soon realized I would not be able to operate him and his (five!) limbs on my own. After a few days of procrastinating, I decided to enter him into an upcoming local state fair, and switched my perspective to make him more display friendly rather than a fully operational puppet.
[Rubble with his completed paint job & accessories. He rested on a spool of wire the majority of the time, the permanent Xenonite stand came later.] 
[Rubble in his current state.] I built him a very quick-and-dirty (a.k.a. crappy) Xenonite-looking pedestal to rest on during the fair. I also threaded temporary wire through his legs to make them a bit more rigid for display. I wanted to display him holding his hand up, as if he was trying to give a fist bump (I plan to title my fair entry “Fist My Bump!”) and this is the point in my project where I got stuck. I tried running wire through his arm and anchoring it on his pedestal, but the arm's weight shift makes him very unstable, and the pedestal is so light it topples over. The arm support wire works, only because the rest of the wire is curled in front of him, which I would prefer to hide. His pose in this picture was very unstable, if I touched even the very end of the wire he completely fell over. It's also worth mentioning that fair entries are displayed by fair staff, so I can't set him up myself. Ideally his setup needs to be as simple/sturdy as possible to avoid conflicts. I also built an acrylic nameplate to rest in front of him, but again it is too light to anchor the support wire. He weighs a little over half a pound. If anyone has ideas on how I could improve his display, or any feedback/suggestions/"words of great encouragement" (iykyk) in general, I'd love to hear them! -JW 