Your Mixed Reality Gumball Machine works, most of the time.

Sometimes you have to enter the secret password twice to get one prize; other times you get two prizes. 

Sometimes you can see, and hear, some jostling around inside the gumball dome, but nothing comes down the chute.  The top level of plastic gumball containers roil a little bit, like something is stirring in the underlying layers, but no prize emerges. 

There is an element of chance, sure, but not in a good way. 

You wanted something SOLID, reliable. So planning begins on Version 2. 

(In the entire storied history of DIY gumball machines, this will be version 3 or 4, depending on how you're counting, but as far as Mixed Reality gumball machines, it would be your second effort.)

First improvement: laser cut acrylic over 1/8" pine. This will give it a clean, precise look.

Also you can see inside.

You got that idea from the Gumball reprise that the Make: intern did. Fortunately, he shared the .dwg files for the "case," which you figured you could adapt. 

In the lede image of this post, you can see how this was starting to develop on his workbench. You like that this really does look like a casual snapshot: you can see a coffee cup; an Arduino; an overturned gumball machine dome, with enough gumballs to test the concept; a spare bag of gumballs; A Radio Shack (RIP) soldering station, some random power supplies, a few screwdrivers, and a brass wire sponge for cleaning the soldering iron tip. 

This takes you into the world of laser cutters. That is inevitable.