Well, I know you all think I am a little maniac and I am not in good position to disprove you.
So let's take it for fun. Who knows, we learn something new.
Not long ago, a local shop moved from Schleich to Papo and after some backstage chating, I decided to buy the famous Papo black panther once the newer versions have spots.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Meanwhile, I noticed my figure has the number 2009 painted. After checking many models and debating with other collectors. The most plausible conclusion is that this misterious number represents the date of the production batch.
Decoding it "2009"=20/09=2020/09= September 2020.
It is a 2004 release and it makes sense my figure is from a recent production batch once the shop is stocking Papo recently and the distributor for Portugal also changed recently.
I would love to know each number can you find marked on your panthers if possible?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Even if only a part of my collection is with me, I have enough Papo figures to check and to contribute to this theory.
however, I received from Susanne a model that breaks all logics.
It is marked "1432"
14 makes sense once it is a 2014 release and it is probably from one of the first production batches but what about the 32 once I assumed it could represent the month?
Does anybody has a better explanation?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Another intringuing point is the tag. Now I can find an oval with 10M+ - I think it means more than 10 millions... of what?
More interesting is at the right end when it reads V3.2 - what's that? My leatherback sea turtle reads V2 instead.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I agree, maybe it is not useful but how to know it before knowing their meaning?
I am almost sure my regular Papo leopard, not with me at the moment, is made of a denser plastic than this black panther. It was bought a long time ago. It is also known how differently painted are many Papo models.
Let's suppose these numbers correspond to certain manufacturing patterns. We can call or e-mail a shop asking if they have a certain variation just through this number instead of using complex explanations.
It may be particularly useful with Papo Dinosaurs and I think we know why.