The Sultan of London

Absolutely extraordinary! I wish I could have been there. This Flickr site -- thank you, platdujour -- has fabulous shots of the beast. Look closely at the man on top with some kind of electronic controls. Very cool. Here is an excerpt from Boing Boing:

French street performers Royal Deluxe put on an incredible show in London, called The Sultan's Elephant. The show opened with a "rocket ship" crash-landing in Trafalgar Square, followed by a 20-foot-high, incredibly detailed puppet of a little girl leaving the ship and meeting her benefactor, the Sultan, who rode a 43-tonne wooden elephant that walked the streets of London, spraying its trunk.

I've never had the pleasure of witnessing a Royal Deluxe spectacle, but it's now a priority.