You need to add the items in the base form, so they must be the same in all inherited forms. At least, I have always thought that. Someone else may come along and tell us that that is not the case at all, but I'm pretty sure that I'm right

I don't think it's very good either, but we've gotta live with it.

Anyway, if it's just the one ToolStrip why not simply add it manually to all inherited forms? That would take half a second for each form.