Originally Posted by
Vovin
I spend some hours to analyze the numerical codes in the list to find out if they are nonsensical or if there is a recognizable system behind them. Short answer: the code makes sense and isn’t very hard to decipher. Here’s what I have found out. Unfortunately, there are no release dates hidden in the codes. Basically the numerical code contains the same information as the affixes behind the product names plus the game system, the army and a four digit number. I do not know if these kinds of code make sense in a business environment and if they are commonly used. But from a mathematical standpoint, the numbers are consistent and not random at all.
First digit: game system
1 = Fantasy
2 = 40k
5 = Hobbit
9 = White Dwarf + Frodo + Turin, coincidentally miniatures with the pr affix
Second+third digit: army
00 = Space Marines or Dwarfs in the LotR system
and so on
71 = Daemons in 40k
86 = Daemons in Fantasy
The Adventures have the same codes as the armies, for example The Fall of Dale has the code 508 which stands for Hobbit + Grey Mountain Dragons, which makes sense because Dale was destroyed by dragons. But the entry is duplicated and has the code 506 = Humans as well. Dale was a human city. I dare say it is likely that adventure sets contain miniatures from more than one range, like mini starter-boxes. Some adventures have only one code and apparently belong only to a single range.
4th-7th digit: box number
I think these digits have to be interpreted as a single unique number from 0000 to 9999 for each release (together with digits 1-3). There are no releases with the exact same first seven digits. There are some code that only differentiate in a single of these digits (and the last, this is later explained), however, which let me believe that these digits are one entity.
There are huge gaps between some releases. They are not just counting continuously from 0000 to 9999. For example, one release has the number 2004625x and the next higher is 200428x instead of 2004626x. However, some items are grouped together without these gaps, for example the space marine fortress that consists of three boxes with the numbers 2004623x, 2004624x and 2004625x. There are more of these grouped entries.
The order of these numbers do not correlate with the order in which the items appear in the original list.
8th digit: material
This one is easy. Exactly every finecast release has a 3 at this position, every plastic release has a 1.
9th + 10th digit: box
a10 = 10
b07 = 07
and so on
11th digit: Len_X, Xian, Sou
Len_A= 4
Len_B= 1
Len_C= 5
XianD= 8
Sou= 7
12th + 13th digit:
these are the two digits that come before the cc column
02: This is the most common entry in these columns.
03: exactly the Tau, Chaos SM and Daemon (40k and fantasy codes) releases
11: Grotesques, Avatar of Khaine, Imperial Guard releases
04: only Phoenixlord Kymedoc
What’s so special about these products?
14th digit: cc
cc= 0
another product code = 9
li=7
pr=8
mf=1
I don’t know what this means. The majority of the releases has a cc entry here. Only the squiggotaur has mf. Only the 999 releases Frodo, Turin and the White Dwarves have pr. Gwethil and the two Space Marine upgrade packs have li. Someone else in this thread already stated that boxes that are released for two different armies have the other product code in this column.
I don’t understand why there are only two letter abbreviations in this column when it can clearly carry a much longer string.
15th digit: checksum
I am really proud of myself for deciphering this. Thanks to Halva at gw-fanworld.net for putting me on the right track.
This digit is a checksum that is used to make it easy for a machine to recognize if a wrong number is entered. This is used in almost every numerical code like EANs, bank account numbers, etc. There are many different methods. This code uses the most standard variant. Take every odd digit and every even digit multiplied by 3. Add all these number for the first 14 digits. Than choose the 15th so that if you add it to the sum, the total can be divided by 10 without fractions. See wikipedia for details, it is quite easy.
This method holds true for every single entry in this list! This cannot be coincidence. Either the one who faked the list has not only deep knowledge of both the hobbit and 40k, but also of mathematical verification methods or the list is genuine. In the end, this convinces me that the list is the real thing.
Questions:
Why are there gaps between the individual product numbers?
What does mf, li and pr mean?
What does column 12 & 13 mean?
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DarthSte
