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You’ll need two things to appreciate the magnificent La Machine creatures that will take over downtown Ottawa next week — a child’s willingness to believe, and patience. Lots of patience.

Judging from a sneak peek of the machines Wednesday at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, the first will be easy. The machines — Long Ma, the horse-dragon, and Kumo, the spider — are astonishing, a combined 80 tonnes of clanking, articulated steel, escaping steam and window-rattling roars.

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Fully outstretched, Kumo can stretch 20 meters long and 13 metres high and takes more than a dozen people to operate. With her jaw-dropping facial animation, when fiery-eyed Long Ma catches you in her gaze, it’s hard not to be transfixed.

Guy Laflamme, the impresario behind the Ottawa 2017 celebrations, admits he had tears in his eyes when he saw the machines in action for the first time on Wednesday.

“They are so graceful. And when you make eye contact with those machines, they are live beings. Live beings with which we’ll develop a relationship over the next few days.”