OK, quick question:
So, "973" is the part number, "p" stands for "Patterned", and the "s" stands for Star Wars, correct? After that, I assume you used "0-9" and "a-z" as identifiers resulting in a total of 36 possible patterns for "s", right?
Here's a thought: wouldn't it simply be easier to use double-char identifier for this? Basically, this would mean 973ps00 - 973ps99, which would allow for 100 possible patterns. Then, if that wasn't enough, you could always resort to 973psa0 - 973psz9 which would give you another 26*10=260 patterns, which would very likely be more than enough, but in the unlikely event that it wasn't, you could move on to 973psaa - 973pszz which would given you an additional 26*26=676 more parts, easily covering it. All told, you would have a total of 1036 possible patterns.
Now you may ask, what theme is going to have over 1000 torsos? The answer is, likely, none. However, consider this: When looking at the current naming conventions, which consists of a single-letter folled by a digit or letter, this only allows for 26*36=936 total possible combinations. Heck, even if we allow for a digit followed by a digit or letter, this results in 36*36=1296 total combinations. Think that's a lot of combinations?
Now consider this, if we look at
Bricklink's list of torsos, we see that there are CURRENTLY 1292 torsos, which is only 4 shy of that number. By the end of 2012, I'm sure we'll be past it as LEGO is constantly releasing new torsos. So I ask you this: is it not better to start preparing for this eventuallity now? It is only a matter of time before a 3 letter/digit identifier is needed. Why not get ahead of this now rather than having to have a massive re-naming later on?
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I'm theJude! So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, his Judeness, or uh, Juder, or el Juderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
