Walk tall.

Tip of the hat to my wife for this gem. Seems the British (masters of cast iron bridges and rubber trains) have been busy building mechanical elephants. Seems the 50's were their hey day with them roaming the beaches of a Saturday.

Frank Stuart built a pretty famous one and gave rides for the children. The thing is truly amazing with a fairly reasonable approximation of an elephant gait and the size, colour and proportions are bang on.

Why oh why would someone do this?

Check out this link for a cool newsreel and more links.
http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/mechanical_elephants/#When:15:05:00Z