Action Figure Stand, 8 PCS Assembly Action Figure Display Holder Base Doll Model Support Stand Compatible with HG RG SD SHF Gundam 1/144 Toy with Screwdriver Transparent
$ 6.02
- OK: so I get super wary buying things like this when it feels like I see tons of positive reviews that just say “Great!” but a good number of negatives that say more specific things like “Not sturdy” or “Only good for ground posing.” Here’s the thing: I have all 8 of these stands being used right now for aerial poses. Been that way for over a week. Six of them are bent in the air or suspended far from where their base is. How did I pull this off when plenty of reviews mention how they CAN’T be used this way? To answer that, we need to understand how these stands are designed, and from there, we can overcome the design flaw.Unlike the stands I typically use, the arms of these are hollow on both ends, and are plugged into pegs on either side. (See picture) Problem is that the arms can fairly easily ROTATE AROUND THE ARM’S LONGITUDINAL AXIS, and each one can do so on either end. So, if you have a heavy figure attached to the end of your stand, and tightly screw the actual joints in place to do some interesting mid-air pose, the arms can (and will) still rotate around the pegs at each joint, and gravity will induce them to rotate in such a way as to get your heavy figure lying flat on the ground. Not a problem of the screwed-in joints – a problem of the arms plugging into the joint pegs.BUT this is very easily overcome with some Loctite super glue! I just put a bit of glue into the hollow openings of the arms, slotted them into their pegs, rotated them to be as straight as possible with the joints, and bam! Perfectly working stands! To be clear, you do NOT glue the joints themselves (that would kind of defeat the point…); in fact, when gluing the pegs in, make sure no excess glue comes out and gets on the joints, otherwise the arms won’t be able to bend. The glue is to stop the arm-axis rotation, not the actual joint bending.With that problem out of the way, I’ve managed to get some good mid-air poses out of my stands, as the pictures show. I will say the joints themselves aren’t quite as strong as official Tamashii ones – but I’ve still managed to make it work just fine via the tightening of the joint screws. My figures are displayed on a shelf unit on my desk, and it is commonly being knocked by kids, wife, or even me. Yet, not ONE of my aerial figures has come down. So despite the strength not appearing AS good as Tamashii’s… for all intents and purposes, it’s been just fine! I did have a few fall over when I brought them down to take pics for this review (laughably, one wasn’t glued and the arms rotated to make him fall LOL), but in terms of them working in my static display, no problems at all!Couple extra bits I want to touch on:1) Some people leave negative reviews for not getting all pieces. I can totally believe that. I think I somehow ended up with an extra piece, and I’m really not sure how (since they come in plastic racks that you have to pop them out of, with 8 pre-packaged racks total).2) Another problem I’ve seen people mention is pieces not fitting. I had this problem: the small clip-arms you have to plug into the clip-body had problems fitting in due to tiny bits of excess plastic being inside the holes. I just “dug” this excess plastic out a bit with my sharp tweezers and my tiny screwdriver, and I got all of them to fit in and function just fine.3) These pegs and holes seem to be a different size than Tamashii’s, as I put one clip on the end of a Tamashii stand, and it doesn’t slot in tightly – instead, it just precariously is “on” it. Don’t anticipate mixing and matching pieces much.4) Because you assemble these yourself, you can make short stands or extra long ones, as you like. This is a nice bonus as far as I’m concerned, though I haven’t done either yet (no need so far).My final thoughts are highly positive. I was previously 3D printing my own stands to match the Tamashii style, but those are barely translucent (if even), can easily break, and probably cost more to make than these do. I’m about to order another set of these just because I really did like them that much. I highly recommend these stands for the budget-minded like me, and may honestly never go back to buying the vastly more expensive Tamashii ones!
