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 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.

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