Well, what's to say about the Grasshopper II? It's a pretty sturdy little beast, I've put it through it's paces over the years. It was a rather common car, although not terribly fast (compared to competition cars) - but a heck of a lot of fun to tear up the backyard with. I've had this one for quite awhile, but with minimal repairs (read -- don't fix it until it doesn't drive anymore) it's still running. It's seen a lot of use, including smashing into many things at full speed - down stairs, off of tables (on purpose), and playing "tag" with other RC cars in the robotics lab (usually lost, turn radius isn't too good for indoors.)

Lately I "inherited" a nice speed control and slapped it in there, made a lot of difference because the old 3 speed mechanical control didn't work too well. I think the SC is worth more than the car actually. The Kyosho Pulsar Pro 2000 radio was good when I bought it, but it's seen better days. The range is pretty bad now, can't get more than maybe 50 feet without taking a HARD left turn(?). But that's plenty of range to jump it off tables and down stairs. =)

It's a fun little car. If you have ideas for new stunts or whatnot, let me know. I'll take on any challengers at stunt racing!

UPDATE Well, was a fun little car. The rear axle unit broke off when it fell out of the ceiling, pulling cables in the CVRR lab's drop ceiling. Oops. But it is fixable, but on closer inspection the plastic is so brittle I'll have to literally coat the entire gearbox in epoxy to keep it together for another hard hit. In the meantime the CVRR lab has a couple of new vehicles to play with, in addition to the Traxxas Stampede, and multiple other "real" robots we drive around. They are snowcat-style Kyosho Blizzards, here's a couple of pictures of the bare vehicle in our lab. lo-res and hi-res.