As a company it was originally established as 'Hiroshima Spinner Ltd' in October 1949.  Following this the company changed its name to 'Hiroshima Synthetic Fibre Spinners' and partnered with 'Nichibo Co Ltd'.  Then in 1970 the name was changed again to 'Hirobo Limited'; the name being a mix of the two company names.  In 1972 they started a 'plastics' division followed in April of 1973 by an electronics section with the separate company name of 'Hirobo Electrics Corporation'.  In July 1973 they began developing products for radio controlled models and in 1976 produced their first RC helicopter kit the Gazelle SA-341G.  For 1977 they finally closed down the manufacture of spun yarns and released five new helicopter models and thus began the most prolific range of models from any manufacturer of Radio Controlled Helicopters.

Because the range of Hirobo helicopters is so large, in order to keep the listing to a manageable size model types have been grouped together i.e. Lama - covers the complete range from the BIG scale model down to the contra-rotating small electric model.  Position in the listing is when the first version of that model was introduced.

Hirobo gear:

  • Hirobo_gear_005
  • Hirobo_gear_010
  • Hirobo_gear_020
  • Hirobo_gear_030
  • Hirobo_gear_035

Hirobo Timeline

Below is a list of introduction dates for Hirobo helicopters and 'major' upgrades; I have not included minor kit variations, change of body colours etc.

 
1976 Gazelle SA-341G (60)
1977 JetRanger (40) - Enstrom_Shark 280-C (40) - Lama SA-315 (40) - Iroquois UH-1B (40 & 60) - Falcon (40)
1978 JetRanger (60)
1979 Falcon 2 (40) - Lama SA-315 (20G)
1980 Bell AH-1S Tow Cobra (60) - Falcon 505 (40) - Falcon 707 (50) - Falcon 808 (50) - Enstrom_Shark 280-C (50) - Lama SA-315 (50)
1981 SST JetRanger (60) - Mini-Star 025 (20) - Falcon 505S - Falcon 808EX - Bell_47G2 (20G)
1982 SST Corvette - Falcon 707S - Iroquois UH-1B (20G) - Schweizer 300
1983 Falcon 555 - Falcon 888 - DDF/SST Corvette - Mini-Star Hughes 300
1984 DDF/SST JetRanger - DDF/SST - Agusta 109
1985 Shuttle ARF (28)
1986 BBC Stork (46) - DDF/SST Ecureuil
1987 Hughes 500 (30) - BBL Hawk (50) - SST Eagle - Bell 47G (25G) - Shuttle XX (32) - JetRanger (30) - Ecureuil (30) - Shuttle Supreme (30)
1988 SSW Machine (???) - Vertol KV-107 (32) - Industrial helicopter R-50
1989 Shuttle Z & ZX (32) - Eagle Champion - MH-10 & Bolkow BK-117 (MH-10) - BBZ Stork - SST Condor (60)
1990 Ecureuil (MH-10)
1991 Shuttle ZXi (34) - Lama SA-315B (30) - Bell_222 (30 & 60) - Tow Cobra AH-1S (60) - SST Eagle EX - Bell_47G2 (Swiss)
1992 Iroquois UH-1B (32) - Shuttle ZX Gold (32)
1993 Tsurugi (60) - Shuttle Z, ZX, ZXX (32)
1994 Super Cobra AH-1W (60) - Tsurugi XX (60)
1995 SST Eagle 2 & EX (60) - Schweizer 300 (32) - Hovermate PF32 (32) - SST Eagle 2 Mechanics - Nova 2 & Jess
1996 GPH346 (46) - Lama SA-315B (BGX-1) - SST Eagle 2GS (24cc)
1997 GPH346 Belt (46) - Schweizer 300 3 Blade spec (30) - Lama 3 blade spec (30) - SST-Eagle2 WC - Shuttle RG (32) Shuttle Z-TS (32)
1998 Shuttle Challenge (32) - SST-Eagle2 (98) shaft & belt (60) - SST-Eagle 2 EX98 shaft & belt
1999 Shuttle SXX, S-TS, RG-M (32) - Tiger (60) - Nova 3
2000 sst-eagle FREYA (60) - AS365 Dauphin 2 (60) - AS565 Panther (60) - GPH 50 (50) - LongRanger (30) - Airwolf (30)
2001 Sceadu (30 & 50) - Sceadu SWM E/G (30 & 50) - Freya EX - Freya EX-WC
2002 Shuttle plus (30) - Shuttle RG-EX (30) - New Cobra (60) - New Super Cobra (60) - Grey Zone body
2003 Freya (80-90) - Sceadu SWM (50) - Nova 4 - Eagle 3 WC (80-90)
2004 Vertol & Chinook ECCPM (50) - Freya R & Super - EC135 (60-91) - EC120B Colibri (70-90) - Bell 430 (GS40cc) - XRB-SR Lama (EP) - Bartle (??)
2005 Shuttle plus+2 (30) - Freya EVO (60-70 & 80-90) - XRB-V2 (EP) - Eagle 3 WC belt (80-90)
2006 Lepton EX (EP) - XRB-SR Shuttle (EP) - Sceadu Evo-EX (HPM/SWM) (50) - Eagle 3 SWM (80-90)
2007 XRB-SR Airwolf & Bell_222 (EP)

Hirobo used various prefixes for their helicopters and rotor heads as noted below.

 
BBC Best Basic
BBL Upgraded Best basic
BBZ Upgraded Best Basic
DDF Dual Damped Flapping head
GPH General Purpose helicopter
SSR See-Saw Rotor head
SST Super Stunt
SSW  
XRB