Ecking Crew's House of Noob

[Ecking Crew]

Most of the shading on your edit doesn't make much sense. You're shading the head as if it were a circle, and not a sphere.

Anyway, I thing GG has somewhat an idea of shading. It's just the colors are a little jarring.
I like the design-it's simple and effective, although maybe making the shaped a little more interesting would help (having the torso taper, making the arms like tesla coils, etc.). It's just the pose is very unnatural and stiff. I understand it's a puppet, but it can still have some life to it.
Usually, making a frontal sprite almost perfectly symmetrical is a big no-no (it can work sometimes, but most of the time it looks lazy and boring).
Is the puppet operated by strings? If so, why not have the head dangle more?
Not a bad start! But work on the composition a little more before you get into colors.

Thanks for the crits! Well, the reason the pose is unnatural and stiff is that it's just sort of a "practice" pose for me to get the design and shading down, and is "not for retail", if you will. I'll also take some of your design suggestions into consideration, they sound pretty cool. Also, the reason the puppet has "got no strings to hold him down" () is because he's a robotic puppet, or technically I suppose he's more like a robot that looks like a puppet - he's mostly robotic, but a lot of his superficial parts are wooden or look like puppet parts. Also, again, does anybody have any tips on how to sprite wood? I've tried searching, but all that I get are pictures like this. lol