Identifying Figures in Classic Sets

LusiferSam

So I was having a Lego conversion the other day with a friend of my dad's and his son. The son is a big Lego fan and knows I have a good sized collection and that I have some early sets. I mentioned that I had a 271 Police set. After showing them a picture (neither knew what I was talking about) the son asked what the names of the police figures were. I answered J (jay), F (ef), R (are) and Z (zee). This turned the conversion into a funny Men in Black discussion.

Anyway later I explained to the my dad's friend where I got the names from. It's from the arm positions for semaphore. He got it right a way and thought it was a very interesting way to refer to them. I know BrickLink and Perron have they own database numbers (which are frustratingly different), but I thought this was simpler and more user friendly to remember.