Bandai Action Base 1 Black: Unboxing & Quick Review

Prior to uploading my final shots of the Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam Version 3.0 in various poses with its shield and weapons in tow, I first had to assembly and paint a suitable base for the mecha. Cue the Bandai Action Base 1 Black, a stabilizing platform from which Grandpa Gundam will strike all his action poses and hopefully not tip over and fall apart in the process.      

Cost-wise the Bandai Action Base is reasonably priced at the mid-twenties (in Ringgit terms) or lower during a sale. While it could be assembled and used as is, there are enough details molded into the plastic parts to satisfy the painter in your average scale modeler. In short, if you wanted to you could paint up a decent and fairly detailed looking mechanical-tech-like base.     

Unsurprisingly, Bandai made the base itself a kit that must be assembled by the hobbyist. Instructions (see top, right) are in Japanese only but are intuitive enough that a translation isn't needed. But if like me you need to know absolutely everything before starting off the assembly process, then a quick use of the Google Translate App or an online search for an English language equivalent (hint: Google "Mech9 Action Base" should give you the appropriately translated set of instructions.   

Sprue BA3-A: Main platform of the base, which comes in a hexagonal shape

Sprue BA3-B1: Primary display stand plus a selection of connectors for attachment to a model kit

Sprue BA3-B2: Primary display stand, base extension and middle piece, plus a name plaque

Sprue BA3-C: Secondary display stand as well as joints/connectors of both display stands

Metals screws and a square piece of double-sided tape

Assembly was supremely straightforward and easy; completed with minimum fuss. There were almost no mold lines to deal with and the parts snap-fitted together securely without the need for any glue. I did, however, come across an irritating anomaly but more on that later on in this post.

From left to right: Secondary display stand, hexagonal and square bases combined, and the primary display stand

Bandai Action Base 1 Black (fully assembled sans connector pieces)

What's unique about this Action Base is that it provides the scale modeler with many posing options via a pivot point as well as height and positional adjustments (see photo montage below). If you refer to the white arrows on the image below, from left to right they indicate the adjustments that can be made to the display stand's height, a roughly 180 degree pivot point, and finally the holes on the base allow for different positioning of the display stand. 

White arrows shows sections of the base that can be adjusted to vary the poses of your model kit 

As I mentioned in passing earlier, all wasn't rosy with the assembly of the Action Base. There was a rather wide gap on the display stand (see below) that shouldn't be there in the first place. Now despite being a reasonably seasoned miniature painter and scale modeler, I can't entirely rule out a mistake on my part. That said I still have a sinking feeling the kit could be at fault because I had bought this one at a sale. It seemed to have been repackaged after being opened up (the packaging you see above was actually from a similar but newer kit). This could mean an itchy-handed shopper had somehow warped the plastic or a knockoff sprue could've been mixed in with the originals. Admittedly the latter is unlikely and I don't completely discount user error i.e. not assembling the kit properly.  

Only gripe I had with the Bandai Action Base was my inability to close the gap shown above

To secure the Gundam to the Action Base, a multitude of connectors were provided in the sprues itself. Some of the connectors are meant for smaller scaled model kits while others are specific towards certain Gundam designs. But because the Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam Version 3.0 has a specialized connector of its own, I may not need any of the connectors supplied in the sprues. Whether it is sufficient enough for my purposes will be made know when I try to display Grandpa Gundam in more challenging poses i.e. ones involving him wielding his shield and weapons. 

To cope with the different scales of Bandai model kits, a multitude of connector options are available on the sprue ...

... however I will be using the one provided by the Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam Version 3.0 kit ...

... which is supposed to securely connect to the underside of the RX-78-2 Gundam's waist area

On a side note, I found an interesting part - at least I found it to be so - on one of the sprues, in the form of a small plague (see below). For modelers who wish to paint and weather the base, the plaque could be used to display the model name or even become part of a mini diorama. 

Piece of plastic plaque whose use is to incorporate names of the model kit on display

Going forward, I do not intend to paint and weather the base. That being the case, I went ahead to spray the Action Base with a flat clear coat in order to get rid of the existing plasticky gloss sheen. This will actually help me when I take photos of Grandpa Gundam against a black background. One of the reasons I do not plan to paint/weather the base is because I only want to use it to securely hold the mecha in place while it's being posed for photos. In fact I want the base to blend into the black background thus making the mecha look like it's being suspended in space. For this to work, I'll need the base's surface to reflect as little light as possible, which is why I coated it with a clear flat coat.

Bandai Action Base 1 Black: Before Flat Clear Coat (left) and After Flat Clear Coat (right)

So I guess in terms of prep work, there is nothing more I need to do for the Action Base. It's ready to be used with Grandpa Gundam in the next series of photos i.e. poses with the shield and weapons. For that I'll have to think up some cool poses for the RX-78-2 Gundam. Until I've figured that out it's entirely possible that my next few posts won't be Gundam related. Heck at this moment I don't even know myself what I'm going to write about. What a great way to kick-start the hobby year, eh?