Creating new types in Python using extensions

I've read the documentation and coded up my own example based on their Noddy example:

http://ift.tt/1HOU40M

This is a bit of a departure from usingPy_BuildValue()to build arbitrary objects dynamically. It appears that the underlying assumption is that there’s a C structure backing every object instance you want to create.

Is this really the only (best?) way to create new objects in Python? I was hoping to create a new object and declare members/types similar to how you would create tuples, lists, and dictionaries etc. It seems like it should be possible to declare a new type, declare members and their types, and then plug values in field-by-field w/o all this.

I can't even use the structure defined by the existing API of what I'm gluing because Python objects require the compulsoryPyObject_HEADfield. I have to define a new C structure, copy the relevant elements that were handed back to me from the API call. It just seems like a level of memory management on the C side that should be unnecessary.