Indeed, and it does look like the days calculated in the Alfie thread were incorrect. The first letter differentiates which factory they were made in (a lot of stuff was made in "E"). What I'm unsure about is the R suffix, another difference between the two...
On Mattel trains they moved the factory to the end, its the three digit #of day in the year, then the last digit of the year, then the factory code
On Tomy-produced toys, the older letter + one or two digit codes are the month (letters position in the alphabet = number of month in the year) and then the last one or two digits of the year. Later on they sometimes include the day of the month inbetween the month and year, IE C2309 is March 23, 2009.
On Mattel trains they moved the factory to the end, its the three digit #of day in the year, then the last digit of the year, then the factory code
On Tomy-produced toys, the older letter + one or two digit codes are the month (letters position in the alphabet = number of month in the year) and then the last one or two digits of the year. Later on they sometimes include the day of the month inbetween the month and year, IE C2309 is March 23, 2009.
I have a website where I have been writing about and photographing many of the sets and pieces that I find interesting.
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