by Crazy Ivan
If you're new to Myachi, you probably saw series 5.1 and 5.1X come out together and thought you understood what was going on. And then 5.2 came out alongside 5.3X and you were perplexed. You decided that you probably had it wrong to begin with and are now confused.
And if you're not as new to Myachi, you probably just laughed inwardly when you saw 5.3X and said, "There goes Myachi Man again..."
You see, there's never really been a "method behind the madness" when it comes to series numbers in Myachi. There have been trends to be sure, but things are never as neat and tidy as one might expect. There aren't any hard and fast rules that we follow except that, by and large, the series numbers have been consecutive.
So first, a little history lesson. In the earliest days of Myachi, the series weren't exactly numbered and they weren't as distinct as they are now. Myachis didn't come in individual cardboard packs back then, but rather they came with instruction books clipped to the tags in large boxes. The boxes would contain 36 sacks divided into a number of different colors. Usually there would be 3 each of 12 designs, but occasionally it would be 4 each of 9 designs or even a mishmash of 3 of some and 4 of others.
What retailers were getting at that point was what we had. And that might be a few of the slower sellers from one series mixed in with all the newer sacks. At that point, a series didn't change over as much as it evolved. There weren't clear lines that separated the series the way there are now.
When you check the sackthology, you'll find that many older sacks are series "0.1" or "0.3" or whatever, but those are artificial distinctions that were made long after the fact. They're paired together with other sacks that were manufactured around the same time, but there was never a time when all the Myachi retailers were selling just the 0.4 series.
The real series numbers begin in 2003 with series 1.0. This marked the first time that Myachis were offered in the now familiar "Blister Pack", where each sack has a cardboard backing and a little plastic blister that contains the sack. From that point forward there would be no mixed bag, in-between series. The package denoted the series so there would be no confusion of what was a 1.0 and what was a 2.0.
Except that there still was. Once a sack was removed from the pack, there was no way to definitively say what series it was from. I mean, sure, if you knew your Myachis, you would know that a Leopard Lime was a 1.0 so when you saw one, you wouldn't need to see the packaging to know which series it came from. But back then we did a lot more repeat sacks so only a minority of Myachis would be offered in only a single series. Eventually we would add the series number to the tag on the sack itself so even repeats could be distinguished from one another.
Ultimately we would solve one problem by creating another one. The series numbers helped everyone to keep track of which sacks came out when and which were older and thus more valuable. But in so doing we would create a whole new source of confusion. Namely, the series numbers themselves.
The first series was 1.0 and even before we moved on to 1.1, there were already some head scratchers. 1.0 had two distinct releases. It was made twice and the second time around 3 of the sacks had changed. This forced us to internally refer to series 1.05 when talking about this brief reissue of series 1.0. Then we moved on to series 1.1, but that one was pretty confusing too. At that point we were still offering the mixed box variety (POP or point of purchase) of display to some retailers so this time we decided to make one series to be offered in the blister packs and a different series in the POP boxes. Unfortunately, there were no tag numbers at that time so we had two series both being called 1.1. This forced us to refer to one of them as 1.1 (the Blister series) and the other as 1.15 (the POP series). And then we came out with 1.2 and that one was far less confusing.
But then we moved on to series 2.0. We never did a series 1.3, but instead released a 2.0 then a 2.1 and 2.2. There was a POP series hidden in there somewhere as well that never got a number (but is often referred to as series 1.9, 2.05 or simply "the Lost Series"). Then we skipped ahead to series 3.0. This was followed by series 3.1, 3.2 and 3.2X (which was only a slight departure from series 3.2). And then we moved on to series 4.0.
By then, people thought they saw a pattern emerging. We would do three series in each number... a #.0, a #.1 and a #.2 and then move on to the next number. So when series 4.0 was followed by series 4.1 and then series 4.2, this fit with everyone's expectations. Then series 4.3 came along.
Everyone was a bit confused, but they embraced it. 4.4 came out next and then 4.5 and everyone once again thought they saw a pattern emerging. Once again, everyone felt like they had it all figured out. And then 5.0 came out and everyone was left perplexed once again. Where was series 4.6?
Keep in mind that to keep things from getting too hairy, I've left out series XM7, 5B, 5BPOP, FMX and TRF. I don't want to intimidate anyone, after all. But the point is there nonetheless: Myachi series numbers have never really fit into a consistent pattern. They've always been a little odd.
The logical question is why, but I'm not going to try to answer that one. All I can do is embrace it and thank Myachi Man's slightly crazy numerical tendencies for giving me endless things to blog about.
So where is series 5.2X? Who knows. Perhaps the next series will be 5.3 and 5.2X. Maybe it will be series 5.4 and 5.4X, but maybe it'll be series 5.3X1a and 5.3X1b. Who knows? I wouldn't be all that surprised if the next series was numbered using some fraction of pi. All I know is that just when I think I know what's coming, I get a surprise. And I like surprises.
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