Just a quick followup on the Action Base 7. As of this writing, both of the control arms on both bases have broken. Just as I feared, the parts fit together so tightly that the torque they generate was enough to shear off and/or break the joints and connectors.
Suffice to say that I’m disappointed, but I’ve also learned my lesson; either stick with the Simple Stand, or with Bandai’s older Action Bases. While obvious in retrospect, the screw-based joints of the Simple Stand (and Action Bases 1 & 2) and the gear-based joints of Action Bases 4 & 5 offer better stability and are less prone to breaking.
I’m not sure why Bandai abandoned both of these mechanisms for the AB6 and 7, but suffice to say that their plastic-on-plastic joints are not to be trusted.
For now, I’ve taken to combining the control arm of the Simple Stand with the mirror finish base of the AB7, which seems to be working pretty well for me:
On another note, I keep all these stand parts in a plastic bag, and I guess that, because they all jostle around in there, the mirror stickers on the Action Base 7 are now pretty scratched up:
So far I haven’t really noticed these scratches showing up during photoshoots, but that may change, in which case I’d have to throw away the entirety of the Action Base 7. That would make it one of, if not the worst Gunpla accessory I’ve ever come across.