Now Ogge's own DNA - his creative vision - is an intrinsic part of this city icon, with seven towering and striking characters joining the St Kilda skyline as the park gears up for its 103rd birthday.

Ogge's latest - and perhaps grandest - works will be unveiled officially on Thursday as Luna Park's famous Mr Moon welcomes seven new friends to the edge of the bay.

They are both new and very, very old in their inspiration, and they soar 10 metres as the greeting party at the amusement park's first newly built structure in decades - a three-level cafe and events centre that brings added function to a destination that has captivated Melbourne since it first opened on December 13, 1912.

"They're just stunning. Gobsmackingly beautiful," says Luna Park CEO Mary Stuart of the statues, which she commissioned Ogge to design after noting he had incorporated Luna Park into his facade for the Spiegeltent in Melbourne.

"These are quintessential, absolutely classic, beautiful carnival figures and they echo the traditions of figures and sculpture - particularly music," Ms Stuart says.

The centrepiece is The Diva, flanked on either side by six counterparts - a trombone player, a flautist, an accordion player, a saxophonist, a french horn player and a clarinetist. But these descriptions tell only only half the story - what completes them is the weird and wonderful whimsy attached to each creation.

They are a homage, says Ogge, to the grand tradition of carnival art.

"There's this amazing tradition of fairground art all over the world," says Ogge.

"It's just incredible because it's always very direct and iconic and people absolutely love it. It's a huge tradition that's been going for hundreds of years and Luna Park is lucky enough to have some really beautiful, iconic examples like Mr Moon and the Ghost Train that really etch themselves into people's memories.

"When I designed these things I drew  on that tradition. It's about creating the thing that you most want to see, and doing it in a really direct and fun kind of way. It draws on the commedia dell'arte tradition - Italian theatre, where they developed all those characters - and also on the big carnival puppet tradition from Europe and South America  ... in a way Moomba is part of that tradition as well, with the big floats."

The statues were a long - and long-distance - labour of love for Ogge and a team of 40 sculptors, painters and technicians. Designed in Melbourne by Ogge, they were actually created in the Philippines and shipped to Melbourne before being put in place at Luna Park over recent weeks in a painstaking operation that required cranes to lock them into place using a complex engineering and harness system that, among other things, ensures they stay upright when slammed by howling winds off the bay.

Now, they are here for good - along with Ogge's other major Luna Park art work - the Scenic Railway backdrop that he painted himself over a year in 2006. "It's amazing," says Ogge, who has loved Luna Park since he was a boy. "It's an honour to have made a contribution."