It wasn’t very long ago that we featured an interview with superb Japanese builder Takamichi Irie. We’ve also covered a number of his builds on this site. So if you’re having deja vu about seeing this lovely animal before, you’re not crazy! The sleek scorpion is back as one of Takamichi’s signature automata. Using only brick-built cogs and simple mechanics, he’s breathing new life into this automaton and other eye-catching builds.

In the latest version, the turn of a crank makes the kinetic sculpture come to life. The pincers go up and down, and the tail flicks dangerously.

The scorpion is also accompanied by an adorable little grasshopper, doing his best to hop away.

Do you remember Takamichi’s Rosalia batesi? He turned that one into a kinetic sculpture as well!

It essentially has an identical mechanism to the Stag Beetle Automata that we mentioned in our interview with Takamichi. But it is just as fun and elegant.

Like the first Automata, this bug also comes with a new friend: a cute and clever caterpillar.