[Billfred]

Perhaps it's because I'm distracted, but I always seem to see the most impressive manipulators at competitions I'm not competing in.

For 2004, 33 definitely had the ball thing down. And to hang on top of that is bonus. But when it came to the bar, I'm torn between 180, 237, and 330 (if memory serves me right). 237 and 330 both had the monkeybot thing going, which did wonders on defending the bar. However, 180's method of hanging made them the first robot in FIRST that blew my mind. I remember looking away for a couple of seconds at Palmetto, SPAM planted on the ground. I look again, and they're airborne. Surface-to-Air Meat, indeed.

This year, I once again tip my hat to 33. Their arm was nice and smooth, and through a bit of paneling and other Jedi mind tricks, that arm looked even beefier than it possibly could've been. (I think having the honeycomb paneling did it.) I also loved the telescoping and rotating setups employed by 233 and 1251, the latter of which I still can't believe wasn't picked in Archimedes. (Now that I think of it, 1251 was at Palmetto with 1293--but I first saw them at Florida, which 1293 didn't go to. So the theory holds...but I digress.)