[Katie Reynolds]

Keeping old robots is a good idea for several reasons: you can learn a lot from them (what went right and what went wrong), they're great for demonstration, and they're good to go back and look at years later ("remember in 2001 when we had that giant claw? Something similar would work great for this year - let's go look at the old one!")

Perhaps you could compromise. Take off one component at a time and model it, but be sure to replace it before you tear anything else off. That way the robot stays (mostly) intact, and will still be usable in the future.