Wind drifter - ribbon help needed

[kasin]

All the official art I'm finding, back cards, pamphlets etc. shows this set with solid color ribbons matching their body color.

I don't have anything in my notes saying where I read Wind Drifter had a green metalic ribbon, but I've never seen a green metalic ribbon anywhere in my 20 + years collecting. The official Hasbro art suggests they intended to make the metalic ribbons match the body color which would mean Wind Drifter should have a gold ribbon.... just a idea, but I'm starting to wonder if it's actually gold on the metalic ribbon release?!?!

[Vettefromm]

Vettefromm, Cloud Puff's gold-edged ribbon is a very pale blue.

Thank you Kellyponyfeathers!

[kasin]

here is a different catalog with the 2nd set flutter prototypes with ribbons. it's worth noting that some combs are wrong.

http://www.oocities.org/ponyriot/87qtr1b.html

hope the link works! still on phone....

[Vettefromm]

The link works great! The picture is just so tiny though. I can't make out the colours

[Breyer600]

My childhood Wing song came with a pink metalic ribbon, bought in the US.  I've seen purple metalic on Cloud puff and blue metalic on Tropical breeze, so pretty confident there was a US release with metalic ribbons. My notes say green metalic for Wind drifter, but I do not own this ribbon and can't confirm my info is correct.

That's interesting...and matches what I always thought to be the case, but when I raised the subject here a year or so ago I was told that the metallic ribbons came with them in the UK. What you say indicates that was maybe not the case, which makes a lot more sense to me. I know I never had a metallic ribbon as a child, and I only had Tropi.

When I was trying to match up my ribbons with the ponies they came with (all from my childhood collection) after I had matched up my first set flutters and Summer Wings, I still had enough metallic ribbons for all but one of my second set flutters while the number of gold edged ribbons closely matched my princesses and MO Sparkle ponies (short one there too); so, that's some more US released flutters that came with the metallic ribbons.  I can't really confirm the colors since the ribbons were all mixed up, but I can say that I don't have a green one at all and the others seem to match what's already been posted.   

[Vettefromm]

Breyer600, thank you for bringing that childhood herd information! Wind Drifters metallic ribbon is still a mystery then. Do you happen to have pictures of the others with their ribbons?

[Mermaid]

Can we just talk about windrifters braided Cindy Lou who mane in that picture?!? Omg haha!

I also want to echo kasin in that I've never seen a green metallic ribbon.

My tropical breeze, and cloud puff have gold edge ribbons as well and they are childhood ponies. They would have been a us release.

[Taffeta]

Ok so my theory on this is that the first batches of these had metallic ribbons in the US and then moved on to edged ribbons because they were already making a ton of them for the Princesses in 1987 so why not save money and continue using this style instead?

The UK would have got the flutters a little later. We DID have them by February/March 1987 because I bought Tropical Breeze with birthday money after my 5th birthday - she is the only pony I bought from this particular shop and we had cake in the cafe afterwards, and I really vividly remember it. Childhood photos prove that this was 1987, as she is in photos with my sister as a newborn baby in November of that year, so we didn't get them that much later than the US. I never had the metallic ribbon, though, so by this point either the UK line was going against the US one, or they had already made the switch in production by this point.

Either way, I would hypothesise that the metallic ribbons AND the edged ribbons all came with flutters in the US at different points, but in the UK, a little behind, and France, whose ribbons are box visible, they stuck with the edged ones (maybe to save production money, maybe for aesthetics, who knows).

So probably the metallic ribbons are uniquely US, whereas the edged ribbons are both.

That's my hypothesis, anyway, although the promotional image for them in the UK does show metallic ribbons. Photobucket is misbehaving for me and I can't access my server from this PC here at uni, so unfortunately I can't post it, but take it from me it does.

I should also add in here that there is a difference in the sets for the 1987 line between the US and the UK - we had a rerelease of Morning Glory, and you had Lily, I think. This was because the movie came out later here, I believe - Hasbro decided to keep Morning Glory instead of Lily because of that. I do not know, but suspect that both Rosedust and Morning Glory simply kept their original ribbons from the first line. My Rosedust in her box is unfortunately first set, so can't answer that question clearly!

The UK box art is not very helpful although they look like solid ribbons. All I can say is that they are not coloured in accordance with the UK promotional catalogue image, where most of them seem to have gold (and very odd hairstyles, also). I can't make out Wind Drifter's in the promotional photo though.

Spoiler

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Another thing I should point out is that years are a bit messy and fluid in the Uk for the first set, as Argos are still advertising Honeysuckle in their 1987 catalogue, after she should have been replaced by the second set ponies. I think it's probably Argos still just had stock of her, because she's also in the 1986 catalogue, but it does muddle around dates and issues a bit. Argos only sold select ponies from sets at that point, and the other flutter they sold was Rosedust, who was still on sale. It might relate to the later style wing socket version of Honeysuckle, though.

http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/1987_flutterponies.htm

Unfortunately Argos don't seem to have sold the second set proper. There isn't a lot of store catalogue information from the 1980s for the UK and Argos is a major source of what I have but because they were so selective, it's problematic. What they did do, though, was take an actual pony and debox it for the photos, so in most if not all cases the accessories they show are accurate. It's a real shame they didn't stock Wind Drifter...

Firm confirmation that Tropi's gold edged ribbon is pale pink:

Spoiler

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This image is actually clearer than the one I have on my website Also, this confirms the metallic ribbon I received with the loose Tropical Breeze is blue, because she's atop her box, and wearing it - this was taken right after I got her and her box, so that answers that question. Of course, that may have been matched to her by the seller based on online information as these were her childhood ponies and not kept bagged and binned with their correct bits. The one with the horrible hair in the foreground is my childhood pony, but I am not sure I still have her ribbon, and she is definitely not wearing it. I have her sticker and her comb so they may still be in a box somewhere, but either way, I'm certain it wasn't metallic.

And I have heard that the differences between ribbons for princesses and flutters is an urban myth.

I have Sunbeam MIB but don't have any of the Sparkle Pony ribbons as we only had the carded ones here and none of them had ribbons, so can't compare.

[Em_L._Pea_Customs]

I have two childhood flutters; Rosedust and Wind Drifter.  I am 100% certain that both of mine came with solid gold metallic ribbons.  I tied them on as a child and never removed them...I never even combed through my Rosedust's hair (like not even once ), because I wanted to keep her perfect.  Hope this helps!

[Mermaid]

Thanks taffeta for that theory! I can 100% get behind that! As for tropi, mine also has the pink gold edged ribbon!

[kellyponyfeathers]

Gah, no! Now I'm just confused again, ha ha!

Well, I think Taffeta's theory makes sense. I'll add that about 5 years ago I bought some ponies with supposedly original accessories from another collector; don't know if they were from her childhood. One of them was Wingsong, and her ribbon was metallic magenta, like Summer Wing Sky Dancer's. At the time I labelled it as her Euro ribbon, because that's what I thought it was. I also got Tropical Breeze with her comb and pink edged ribbon still attached, and some other ponies like So Softs (I remember Bangles was in that purchase batch); all their accessories look correct. I don't know how useful this is, since I still can't confirm Wingsong's ribbon. But like I said, everything else I got in that batch seems correct.

Assuming Taffeta's theory is right, and based on promotional photos we've seen and other bits of information we've scraped together here, this is what I'm thinking that the early and later releases looked like regarding ribbons:

Wind Drifter
metallic gold
edged light green

Cloud Puff
metallic purple (like SW High Flyer's)
edged very pale blue

Wingsong
metallic magenta (like SW Skydancer's)
edged pink

Tropical Breeze
metallic blue (like SW Buzzer's? Or Glow's?)
edged pink

What do you guys think? Does that sound plausible?

Cookhuman, can you check if your childhood Rosedust and Wind Drifter had gold ribbons that were the same tone? I'm wondering if Wind Drifter's may have been a bit yellower, like SW Little Flitter's. (If you look closely, Little Flitter's ribbon is yellower than the gold ribbons from the first Flutter group, though at first they look the same.)

One last note for Vettefromm: Princess Starburst also has a light blue edged ribbon, but Cloud Puff's is even paler. Just an FYI.

[Taffeta]

I have both Glow and Buzzer MIB on my bookcase at home but I'm in the wrong place to check them against the blue ribbon I have, sigh. I wonder if I have anything in my pictures online that I can check. I have a feeling one is aqua, not blue, but can't remember which. I'll come back and edit in a minute if I find anything useful in my files.

Edit to add: It's Glow. Buzzer is more aqua than the ribbon I have loose, judging from the photos I have here. If Photobucket was working for me I'd upload images but you're just going to have to believe me...

Unfortunately it's still a bad habit in the pony community to assume accessory variations must be Euro variations, but as we've seen with ponies in general, nothing Hasbro did was that logical and clearcut. Flutters are one of the worst sets because of the hidden ribbons, but I think that kind of breakdown makes sense, especially the idea they'd match the Summer Wings.

(Although that sort of suggests they had the metallic ribbons, but stopped using them)

[Babydoll]

Hmmm I have Semi MIB Cloud Puff with a edged pale green ribbon not blue she comes with all her accessories including phamphlet and unused sticker.

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I also have MIB Wind Drifter, although no sign of ribbon she is completely sealed so im unsure if its hiding in the back somewhere but i dont want to tamper with her to check (sorry).

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Babydoll~

[Taffeta]

Hmmm I have Semi MIB Cloud Puff with a edged pale green ribbon not blue she comes with all her accessories including phamphlet and unused sticker.

Babydoll~

One day, I swear I am going to sneak into your pony collection and nab those two. I still think they're awesome.

But I had a feeling your WD was sealed and therefore no visible ribbon. Though I have recently seen a French equivalent on sale...someone on here had one...mib....and she has the green ribbon.

Can't comment on Cloud Puff at all. Mine is the childhood pony of a good friend and though I got the wings with her, I didn't get any of her accessories.

[Babydoll]

Hmmm I have Semi MIB Cloud Puff with a edged pale green ribbon not blue she comes with all her accessories including phamphlet and unused sticker.

Babydoll~

One day, I swear I am going to sneak into your pony collection and nab those two. I still think they're awesome.

Hehe well not before I nab your MIB NFT Baby Lickety Split first!

Yup she is literially perfect, I wouldnt have minded sneaking a peak inside her box if the tape at the sides were damaged but both sides are still intact!

Babydoll~