I think the better option that would have made everyone happy and still have the same effect would be to have a sleeping Smaug in the upper corner as in Pacman's mockup, however I'm not sure you could have his full body because of scale while concealing the mechanics is his head. You could get around this by having him buried in the gold coins with only parts of him exposed. Have his head tucked in behind his wing while "sleeping" and have the wings swing open for the "reveal". You could then have his neck on a pivot and have him follow and interact with the ball. You could also have the trail of coing over to the ramp with his exposed tail on a pivot for the diverter. You could have orange and red flashers hidden below the wings as well. Just a few thoughts
Ryan