PSA: 5-Digit Code Doesn't Reveal Secret Rings Content

In the past few days we've seen and heard of several people trying to identify the pony inside of the Secret Rings blind bags by the 5-digit code that is printed on the packaging. Sadly, this code does not identify the pony inside. Nor did we find any other codes on the packaging that help with that.

Hasbro uses this 5-digit code, which is not only printed on packaging, but commonly also on ponies themselves, as a way to identify the date on which a product has been produced. We commonly call this the 'production code' or 'production date'. We've done our share of research around this code in the past and wrote a production code guide back in 2014 on this (note: the calculator might not function correctly).

In short: the 5-digit code consists of 3 parts: the final digit of the production year + the day of the year it was produced + "1".
So, for example, if you have a Secret Rings box with code 03211 on it, that means the production date is November 16, 2020 (0 -> 2020 and the 321st day is Nov 16). It could also be Nov 17 because of the leap year, but we don't know exactly if Hasbro counts that.

You might think: "If we know which pony is created on which day, we can still identify them", but sadly that is not the case. We've seen many examples of different figures created on the same day, or the same pony that was created on multiple days. These could be mixed up within a single box of figures, and thus causes an unreliable way of identifying ponies.

To conclude: There are no codes printed on the Secret Rings packaging that help identifying its content.

(Photo by Alicia)