The micro helis are pretty much a waste of time. They are disposable and don't last long.
I've got literally hundreds of flights on my piccolo... I taught myself to fly heli on it, and now when I take the sticks of something larger like a raptor it is almost boring, the thing flys itself! I would easily pit the crashing ability of a FP micro to any glow heli any day and see which one is disposable after a crash. micros just bounce off stuff, and occassionally break a blade. needless to say nitro helis aren't quite that forgiving... [&:]
anyway, micro and 'normal' scale helis are two entirely different creatures... what do you want the heli for? indoor flying during the dead of winter? fp micro. outdoor flying in the summer? .30 glow. something that can do a little of both, cp micro, especially a larger one like a shogun. keep in mind that a micro isn't any cheaper then a glow, at least if you want comparible performance you should expect to spend comparible amounts. minimum requirements are lipo's and brushless. they will fly with nimhs and regular motors though...
. If not you will be replacing motors all the time... with that being said if you want to go heli... go nitro.
I went through exactly one motor on my FP piccolo heli in two years. (well, didn't really go through, it was still flying when I did finally upgrade to brushless... I went through a couple tail motors (3 or 4) until I upgraded to a DD tail, haven't touched it since.
as I said above, what are your needs/wants. THAT is what dictates which type of heli to buy...