Dang, mine are just shipping out from Las Vegas today, slated to arrive next Monday.
I'm torn on the drop-down hips. I do use them, often. I'd say 15-20% of my posed figures are utilizing them, hitting some fantastic low crouches I wouldn't be able to hit without them. But I do agree they seem to make the figures a lot more fragile; the hip rods in particular could be thicker but now they have premade "weak points" essentially. Luckily I haven't had a lot of issues with the drop hips, not since the first year or two. But my worst nightmare is picking up one of these figures on a cold day and just have the leg snap off. Always warm up and do your leg circles (with your toys, too).
Lightly sanding those nubs on the hip balls is a much better solution. Just be careful on the nub opposite the hip rod, that one keeps them from doing the splits. But yeah, heat and pop the legs off, lightly sand the nubs, clean them, test, repeat. I give this advice a lot, has anyone tried it and found it useful?