Bil Baird

I picked up an old vhs tape at Goodwill recently called "Davey Jones' Locker", featuring Bil Baird's marionettes and I can't believe how awesome the designs of the puppets are. They look like they were designed by Roy Nelson and Vernon Grant, which may not be a coincidence since Baird attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts around the same time as both and they clearly share a similar design sensibility.
I couldn't find any clips online and because It's a vhs tape I can't make any frame grabs, but I'm attaching a few Baird images found online (there isn't much) to hopefully motivate you to check out more.
I wish the current cgi movies had this variety in design. I can't figure out why all the girls in cgi movies have the exact same round head- the girls in Bolt, Monsters vs Aliens, and Cloudy Meatballs all seem like the same design, and the neck never attaches to the head right. Maybe it's a limitation of the technology, because the best character designers in the world worked on those movies.
You can buy a dvd of some of Baird's early films here. I recommend it highly.
S.