Alright, so...I've decided to address the elephant in the room. Except in this case, the elephant is a wolf. I'm just gonna say it plainly.

Rick's design is inconsistent.

I recently wrote a retrospective on Rick's design and I purposefully sidestepped important details about his design. So, we're gonna address each and every one of them right here, and you, the public, are welcome to participate.
I also aim to have this journal be a showcase of the very talented artists that have portrayed Rick all these years. Consider it part of the 10 year furry anniversary celebration. (I will try not to include NSFW art if I can, but if necessary, I'll mark it as such.)
Aaalso, I'll just be adding one example per-artist, in order to keep things short.
AAALSO, I'll avoid any transformation-based (mid-change) examples and uncolored drawings due to them not being a good representation of "100% Rick".

1. Eye color

To put it bluntly, I've never really settled for a specific eye color for Rick. My own drawing style forgoes eye color, settling for simple dots in scleras. Other less lazy artists, however, have had to guess on their own or simply take other references very seriously. Here's some examples of the colors we've gotten so far.

Purple:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6213821/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26001945/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26002153/

Gray:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11930652/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22014783/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22036691/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22037313/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25380617/

Blue:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19666383/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20639329/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21262952/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24348251/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24877382/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25376486/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26001848/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25522026/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26831377/ [NSFW]
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27471086/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27576923/

From what I can gather, blue seems the popular choice here, and I understand why. The most prominent drawing references I use use the blue color scheme, and I assume everyone just bases themselves upon that. The next most popular choice is gray, which I gotta say, doesn't look bad either. Dead last is purple, which funnily, is the one I like the most. My Rick fursuit currently sports purple eyes to reflect that choice of mine, but looking back after listing all those examples, I believe this clashes with most representations of Rick, so I'll have to think about it.

2. Claw color

This one should be a no-brainer. I have drawn Rick with white (or yellowish white) claws ever since his conception. It should be an obvious choice. Well...some artists differ. Here's the examples I compiled.

White claws:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22455414/

Black claws:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7428292/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22014783/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22981891/ [NSFW]
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24877382/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25522026/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27292587/

No claws:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6213821/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12484243/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20696014/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20715455/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23283904/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24348251/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25376486/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26831377/ [NSFW]

Well, this one is yet another surprise. My preference for white claws hasn't been really heard. I can only blame myself for that, really. Once again, derivative design is the cause here. The references I have sent artists the most have been drawings where Rick has black claws. Recently even, I changed the claws on my Rick fursuit from black to the original white-ish in order to be a bit more aligned to what I traditionally think of as Rick. Additionally, I will not consider "No claws" very seriously here, having in mind that perhaps for a lot of artists this is just simply a stylistic choice. I just found it interesting how many drawings without them there are.

3. Pawpad color

This one, just like with pawpads, is one I envisioned from the very beginning. Rick was originally designed with pink pawpads, on both his handpaws and footpaws. It might have been, once again, some artist's creative freedom in play, but somehow Rick ended up with black pawpads in an astoundingly big number of drawings. Let's see.

Pink pawpads:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22455414/

Black pawpads:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22014783/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22037313/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25522026/

I didn't include any "no pawpads" examples because once again, it tends to be part of the artist's style. The again, in many of the example drawings I provide, Rick's paws aren't usually turned towards the viewer, making it really vague and something I never think of specifying. In any case, black is definitely the popular option here, making it a very similar case to the claw color. Funnily, I recently had pawpads attached that I bought to my Rick fursuit paws. What color did I pick? Black. I didn't even think about pink, or maybe I didn't see them as an option and just went with my gut. In any case, now we have a big contradiction there: white claws, black pads.

4. Snaggletooth fang

I almost forgot this one. So, once again, since very early on, Rick's design has included his very characteristic snaggletooth, a fang that pokes out from the left side of his muzzle. Very few examples include it, for the same reasons outlined above.

With snaggletooth:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11930652/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24877382/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26001848/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26001945/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26001986/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27292587/

Most of the time it doesn't make that big of a difference, but considering I keep drawing it as a crucial part of his design, I feel like it should be kept in some form.

Conclusion:
I gotta say, I'm pinning the blame of all this ambiguity on myself. And I can name several reasons for all this confusion.
- When I commission art, I just send previous drawings of Rick the artist's way and call it a day. I don't really attach descriptions to them, so of course artists take what they can from the drawings and do their thing.
- I have stalled on commissioning a proper reference sheet for Rick because I place regular commissions and fun situations as top priority while I keep using the same drawings (and not the ones I drew myself anymore, out of shame) as reference material for artists.
- Ever changing details might make them just pick their choice. I sorta like this, I've always believed in letting the artist do what they want, because I'm in really no position to ask for a lot. I don't want to sound bossy whenever I commission something, and I fall short in assertivity. It's kind of a personal problem, really.

In any case, I plan on solving this problem soon, by consolidating everything that makes up Rick for good.
So, what do you guys think about it all? Which is your favorite eye color/claw color/pawpad color combination and why? If I plan to get a proper reference sheet soon, I will need to consider all options together. You could greatly influence Rick's design for the future here!