Royal de Luxe...

The French mechanical marionette street theater collective, Royal de Luxe, has put together some staggeringly beautiful animal dream machines. One piece called The Sultan's Elephant or La visite du sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps (literally, "A visit from the Indian Sultan on his time-traveling elephant") had a larger than life 42 ton elephant roaming the streets of London in honor of the centenary of Jules Verne's death. In general, I take a pass on the geek wizardry of the Steam Punk movement, but this particular wind-up toy was a fine piece of work. I am also very fond of their giant squid-train which can be seen in full effect here.

("The Sultan's Elephant" by Royal de Luxe)