I have most of the candy canes (all but Lemon Treats) and all of the rainbow curls with factory curl, but the soda sippers we have are more of the mad curl variety, rather than ringlets. :/
I only had one of these new as a kid, Rainbow Magic...and her curls are now quite loose but still there. She's a special pony so I know exactly when I got her - December 14th, 1990 - so that's what, almost exactly 30 years of play wear
I suspect the factory curl ponies I have were displayed, not played with. Several came from the same collector.
I also have a few with no curls (Rainbow Rider, sister has a very curly but not ringletty Mint Dreams, Caramel Crunch...) and some with looseish ringlets (Rainbow Cloud). I don't know if that says anything about the durability of the curly when played with across those two sets.
I'm not sure of the two sets I have which are the tightest. CC came in a box vs RC ponies on card...but I can't actually get at the really curly ones right now. They live in carry cases to keep their hair nice and they're tucked away someplace safe. I do have individual images of most on my site, on the individual pony pages, if it helps.
I don't have any RC ponies MOC (Rainbow Magic on UK card is the one I'm holding out for) but I do have one CC (Sugar Sweet) and her curls are bubble-packed to her head.visitors can't see pics , please
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loginShe has the US box though, the UK box packages behind cello instead (we had both releases here). That may also have an impact on how the hair survived in pack vs out of it.