Original ribbon colors

[Tak]

I received a large number of original ribbons and have no clue what color goes with who. Help please.

[Leave a Whisper]

Try my little wiki. They often mention which ponies had which ribbons. You could watch the cartoons and write em down.

Who are ya trying to match em too?

[Artemesia's Garden]

Me too. They can be really tricky to sort out. My little Wiki gives you a starting point but some of the shades are really similar. Maybe if you have any known ribbons you could line those up in rainbow order on a white background as a colour reference guide. You could line the unknown ones up below. Take a picture then write the pony names of the known ones onto it so people can use it as a guide, then post on here... sounds like a lot of effort I know but might give you a better idea... I'm guessing you don't want to miss a rare one. I'll do the same, but I don't have any known ones, I have no idea what any of mine are 

[Tak]

I have years 1, 2, and 3 almost completely (except sea ponies). I'd love it if some matched up to them. I got them as (I found more pony stuff) in a box of mostly year 2. I'll look on wiki, but where do you find the original cartoon?

[Taffeta]

I think that you'd do better looking at the wiki or at MOC images of the ponies. I think MIP images will exist for most of the early US carded releases at least. The cartoons are noted for their animation errors and there's no guarantee the ribbon colours will be correct.

Ribbons do fade, though, over time. Matching ribbons is one of the hardest things to do!

I just keep all my ribbons. Just in case. The only ones I have properly matched up are ones that came with a specific pony complete, and therefore I can know for sure (in some cases they're still taped to the brushes or combs).

[Al-1701]

True, Gusty comes with a pink ribbon.  However, she was animated with a light purple ribbon.  Though, I personally like her with a purple ribbon since it makes my "Pri-mare-y Four" (Wind Whistler, Fizzy, Gusty, Shady) have different colors (white, light pink, light purple, light blue respectively), but that's just me.  Ribbon was also depicted with a white ribbon on the show when she came with an orange ribbon (I think the cartoon did that to match her symbol).

If you want toy accurate, you need to look at the toys.

[kissthethunder]

If you got them in a lot, I find it helpful to look up pictures of the pony mip and match them up that way. It's helped me ID tons of ribbons I got in lots, even with matching brushes and combs!

[ponyqueen]

When I paint ponies, I almost always paint them with the appropriate color ribbon according to the toy release. But sometimes a pony with a pink tail has a pink ribbon; then I select a different color of my choosing for contrast.

[kitkatvintage]

Ribbon colors can be tough! I have found that multiple sites, plus googling MOC/MIB pics is the best way to go. Another helpful site is Ivy's Ponyland Tours (she has many MOC/MIB pics in the accessory guide)
http://www.ponylandtours.com/DreamCastle/Library/Accessories/accessories.htm

Also I have original ribbons on almost all of my US G1's. My collection photography is not complete, but I have many of them up on my Facebook collection page. Here's a link to the US albums:

Years 1-4: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587616131289902.1073741831.508038065914376&type=3

Years 5-7: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587616551289860.1073741832.508038065914376&type=3

[ValeofSpring]

Hi! You can almost never be confident that a particular ribbon you find goes with a certain pony; the best you can do is get close. As Taffeta said, some ribbons are faded (they are around 30 years old now!). Also, to further complicate things, the same pony sometimes came with different shades of ribbon . . .

Yes, the card art and cartoons aren't always correct about ribbon color, although they are usually at least in the right ballpark.

[reanna-mator]

Oh goodness, I feel you there. I wish someone could come out with a handy color guide so I know what I've got, and which ponies they go with.

[hathorcat]

I would absolutely second the idea of working your way through sites like Great Ponies, the Wiki and MOC pictures. Its the best way to track down individual shades. Otherwise, if you take a picture (while it can be hard to say for certain due to camera and screen differences as well as aging) people will be able to at least give you a starting point

[Tak]

I'm terrible with pictures. My counter is blue so the sharpie is for a reference.
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[Taffeta]

Hi! You can almost never be confident that a particular ribbon you find goes with a certain pony; the best you can do is get close. As Taffeta said, some ribbons are faded (they are around 30 years old now!). Also, to further complicate things, the same pony sometimes came with different shades of ribbon . . .

No kidding. Cherries Jubilee was released twice here, for example, once with a butterfly brush and once with a dove brush, both in lime green. I had the later 1986 one MOC already, and her ribbon was lime green, which is what Wiki etc says for the earlier global release one as well. But I had the earlier 1985 one as a child, new. And I always thought my childhood one had a light green ribbon, too. But I got the earlier one MOC this summer, and she...has a yellow ribbon. Sigh. Did it fade? Do all UK first release Cherries Jubilees have yellow ribbons and I just remembered wrong? Did Hasbro even care? The list of questions is endless...

[ValeofSpring]

The greens are so often the hardest! I was an accessory fanatic even as a child, and at the store I opened several Waterfall playsets (back then this was easy to do w/ damaging anything--one piece of scotch tape!) b/c I wanted my Sprinkles to comes with a green ribbon. In two or three of the boxes I went through the ribbons were more yellow-green. Bubbles is another one that sometimes appears to come with a yellow ribbon, but her "true" ribbon color (if such a thing exists) is more of a yellowish green.

TAK! In the second pic you posted of the ribbons, the 7th one (the greenish one) to me looks like one that could have come with Sprinkles, maaaaaaybe Cherries Jubilee although as Taffeta said the typical ribbon for her is more chartreuse. The 10th ribbon (dark pink) came with Sunlight, Sparkler, maybe Powder (?) and no doubt others.

If the blue one next to the dark pink one is shinier than the others and a bit longer, there is a good chance that is Sundance's ribbon (maybe Year 3 only--seems like her ribbon changed for Year 4???).