Here is something to think about. Back in the 1930’s and 40’s Frank Marshall offered his figures with your choice of movements controlled by either lever or pull ring.
Being a collector I have figures with both of these styles of controls and have to tell you it is rather hard to control the movement of the mouth and then a second function using the rings. If it was just the mouth movement I don’t think it would be that difficult to use the ring but when adding functions with multiple rings things become a bit more difficult.
Of course I do not perform and collect so for me when I find the figure with the ring control they are neat because they are a bit harder to find. I think the ring setup was more than likely 1 to 10 in production. For the most part the rings were used to roll a winking eye, move the upper lip or move the slot jaw. I do have one Marshall that the ring also controls side to side eye movement and a rolling eyeball winker. I have to admit it is a strange setup.
I would love to hear from anyone that may have used the ring setup on their figure.
Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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