So are the ear things not glued into place? If that's the case I could see being able to get the head repositioned on the figure I'm having trouble with.
Nope. At least mine weren't. I tried removing them just so I could tilt the head back to line the head up. I think you need to do that in order to get it to swivel properly without breaking it. Once you've done that, like the rest of the joints, it moves easily.