[Champion Concept] Snake/Dragon/Train like champion - long tail

So I was listening to the podcast linked below, and about 20 minutes or so into the podcast, they're talking about the character model for Aurelion Sol. Well they were talking about how, at one point, they tried a model with a long tail about 10-12 teemos long, and how that didn't really work. Well that got me thinking, why not? Well obviously theres the problem that a large hitbox means they'll be taking a lot of hits, so it has to be a tank. So I thought of a mechanic that could actually work.

What if the tail of this champion had it's own hit-bar, or rather, what if the tail was cut off into sections that could take damage and were susceptible to aoe skill shots and could block Caitlyn ults and such. Then upon hitting zero, that section of the tail, and all sections behind it would be left behind, and the tail might take some time to grow back section by section. Also what would happen to the section(s) left behind? Maybe they could explode after some time, or maybe those section(s) could become destructible terrain.

As for abilities, well the above would definitely be the champion's passive, but that's as far as my thought process goes for now. Anyone think is a cool idea, or have ideas to expand on this concept?

Podcast: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/community/community-spotlight/forging-star-forger