From Michael James,
Your Guide to Radio Controlled Vehicles.
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Radio controlled vehicles come in many sizes from tiny little micro trucks to airplanes that are almost too big for one person to carry. You may have heard that the scale of the RC means how big or small it is. Almost.

A. Scale and size are not exactly the same thing. Radio controlled vehicles are modeled after full-size cars, trucks, boats, and aircraft. The scale of the RC is its size as compared to the real, full-size version.

The scale might be 1:16, 1:10, 1:12, 1:8, or other scales. The 1:8 scale Camaro is 1/8th the size of a full-size Camaro. The 1:10 RC is usually smaller than the 1:8, but not always.

A 1:8 scale sports car is much smaller than a 1:8 scale Army tank because a full-size sports car is much smaller than a full-size tank. So, RCs of the same scale may be very different sizes if they are scale models of real cars, planes, and boats that are very different sizes.