Submitted prototype (and possibly final as I doubt there will be enough time for iteration) designs to JLC PCB for 6 different boards (front base, front middle, front top, back base, back middle, back top) to comprise a bendy assembly. Working under a time crunch, I'm focusing on keeping things as simple as possible, so I added pads to mount a XIAO 2040 (only $3!) on the front base, to easily program patterns on the LEDs in CircuitPython. The image below shows two columns of boards, with front layer on left and back layer on right. Each column contains one base, two middle and one top board.