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The Most [Decade] Coaster Ever?

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Which coaster do you believe best represents the decade it was built in or around? Like, you look at the coaster for what it is, how it's themed, the building style of its infrastructure, and think, "that's the most [decade] coaster ever." Which coaster invokes that reaction for its particular decade?

1970's: SooperDooperLooper- Ah, a classic 70's Schwarzkopf. The truss-style loop support, retro station, gross and yet still fab name, and the ride's logo probably make this the most seventies coaster ever.

1980's: Magnum XL-200- Who doesn't love the best Arrow ever made? The cheesy futuristic trains, station, digital alarm clock font on the concrete photo booth, shaky Arrow goodness, and scaffold supports are so eighties it isn't even funny. Not to mention that beach with the coaster, hotel, and Soak City in the background looks like the perfect place to shoot a scene for a bad high school flick.

1990's: Flight of Fear- Pretty sure the entirety of this ride was designed using Windows NT. That cheesy queue line video, the bad Independence Day ripoff theming, the dusty old equipment featuring tons of cathode tube screens in the queue (fun fact: one of which is an old Paramount-era season pass scanner), all leading up to a nineties LIM launch (possibly one of the biggest coaster innovations of that time period).

2000's: Millennium Force- This was the most 2000's coaster ever before it was even built simply because of the horridly crude 3D announcement video. The cheesy sci-fi station (echoing the same thing going on across the peninsula but two decades later), the station music, the DJ booth in the queue, it's easily the best representative of the past decade. Not to mention it was a key part of Intamin's rise to power that lasted over pretty much the entire decade, with them being arguably the best manufacturer of coasters during those ten years.

2010's: Full Throttle- Ah, the **** bag themed coaster at Six Flags Tragic Mountain. While I think the best representative for our current time period would probably be an RMC or a wing coaster, this was a pioneer in volley launching coasters which has gone into use in both Premier Sky Rocket II models and launched El Locos like Gale Force. But the thing that secures this coaster's spot is that it's simply themed to the idiotic stuff kids these days are into. The brash, bold, obnoxious, **** measuring contest-esque dubstep and lights ride plaza should be your first warning, but you see the giant jumbo-tron of people doing dangerous things, YOLO announcement video, satin chrome trains, and unnecessary "don't sue me if your fat arse falls out" seatbelts have probably secured this coaster as the best representative of the 2010's. Luckily, even though kids these days are apparently "2 legit 2 quit," this kind of idiotic behavior seems to be less common anymore, so an RMC that represents the times better could come along and take this away from this amazing yet tacky Premier.
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Interesting topic.

70s: Corkscrew- Cedar Point: It introduced the Clothoid loop, it has a double corkscrew over the path, and the station/logo was so 70s it puts Disco music to shame.

80s: The Standup Coaster- Anywhere: The 80s was mainly about weird innovations and new ideas for coasters. This was the decade where the Pipeline, the (modern) Suspended, the (modern) Bobsled, and the Boomerang models were created. But the Standup coaster was by far the most interesting and defining coaster of the 80s for me. It was the only model that was tried and produced by Arrow, TOGO, and Intamin, (arguably) the 3 major manufactures from the 80s. Really, any of the models I listed could go in there, but the Standup was the only model that was ridden by the public from all 3 of the major manufacturers.

90s: Batman the Ride- Six Flags Great America: This was the coaster that made B&M the best manufacturer in the 90s. It was one of the biggest coaster innovations of all time, and had a theme that was very 90s. Not to mention that it was cloned 13 times.

00s: Top Thrill Dragster- Cedar Point: This was the coaster that defined what 2000s coasters were: trying to break records, and modified coasters of a preexisting model.

10s: Outlaw Run- Silver Dollar City: I should rather say RMC woodies in general. This company is the B&M of the 2010s, they started at the start of the decade, and immediately won respect from everyone. Outlaw Run was the coaster that redefined what a wooden coaster could be. Inversions, smooth rides, steep drops, overbanked turns, and consistent, fast speeds. While the theme isn't 2010s, the technology is out of this world.
 

TommyAlex

Mega Poster
70s - Corkscrew, CP - As said before, the logo is really 70s style, and it also represents the boom in inverting coasters by the end of the decade, and into the next. I'd also say that Gemini Jr, before its retheme, looked very 70s ish, with bright colours, and a dated looking layout, track design and train design.

80s - Disaster Transport, CP / Great American Scream Machine, GAdv - The former, because it had a nice and unique theme, with theming elements that looked like they could have on,y been made in the 80s, and the latter, because it's a mix up of basically everything that was important in a coaster in the 80s - height records, and inversions.

90s - Mantis, CP / Superman, MM - Before its transformation, Mantis had a colour scheme that could only have been put on a coaster in the 90s, considering many coasters now are either just two colours (rather than three) or dark colours. The logo was also very 90s-ish as well. Plus, it shows how far B&M had come in a few short years, and shows what a typical coaster of the 90s was about - being big, and having inversions. Superman on the other hand, shows the first step in the strata coaster, and has a very 90s design that really doesn't look that modern now, with its wide track and big, single cars.

00s - Kingda Ka, GAdv - Wheras, up until this point, many coasters had been all about inversions, by the 00s it had definitely become more about height, with the invention of the full circuit giga and strata coasters in the decade, as well as B&M now producing hypers. Therefore, the most 00s coaster, a decade all about height, has to be the tallest - Kingda Ka.

10s - Twisted Colossus, MM - The fact it's and RMC with inversions, combined with the modern steampunk theme, makes this coaster really up to date, and represents the company that has created the most popular type of coaster of the 10s - the RMC wooden/hybrid coaster.
 

steel

Mega Poster
10s - New Texas Giant & Leviathan

00s - Kingda Ka & Maverick - indicative of the monumental shift in focus from record-breaking to pacing, speed, and intensity. IMO the defining moment of the aughts was actually the Cedar Fair purchase of Paramount in 2006.

90s - every single B&M built from 1992-1999

80s - inversions: Carolina Cyclone/Viper (Darien)/Vortex (KI)/Shockwave (GAm), and also Z-Force and The Bat (honorable mentions for being insufferably 80s)

70s - KBF Corkscrew, Revolution, & The Beast

60s - SFOT Mine Train

50s - Matterhorn Bobsleds
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
1960s - John Allen Woodies: Canon Ball, Swamp Fox, Blue Streak, etc. Simple out and back wooden coaster designs, that culminated in the Racer as the "dawn of the second golden age of roller coasters" in 1972.

1970s - This is really when Arrow's corkscrew design took off as a "smooth" design that provide first-ever inversions. KBF Corkscrew, Cedar Point Corkscrew, BGT Python, BGW Loch Ness Monster, etc. would take top billing.

1980s - Arrow still dominated this decade as the race continued for inversion count and height. Probably the best iteration of both height and inversions was Shockwave at SFGA. It was built as the tallest, fastest roller coaster with inversions in the world (and took the title for most inversions with 7). Like many things in the 80s however, the literal design of the roller coaster was not able to hold up with the sheer stress of the ride, which led to its removal in 2002.

1990s - Arrow's last big plays in the early 90s gave rise to the far superior design of Intamin and B&M. B&M I would more categorize as a 90s design, as focus was on creating so many different ride styles and designs. Mantis probably iterated the 90s best with its color scheme: red and yellow two-toned track paired with blue and red trains <3. And who can forget that promo video?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-cvVBdz7bY[/youtube]

2000s - I'm actually going to opt for Intamin Impulses; a cool application of new coaster technology that no one really asked for. The first half of this decade was also centered on the coaster count war between SFMM and CP, with each park seemingly grasping for whatever roller coaster design they could get their hands on - especially those that are the 'tallest, fastest of [x] type'. Wicked Twister's marketing and color scheme also forever carries a certain 2002 charm. I mean, comeon, The Crystal Method did the theme song:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp1gfSyiDV0[/youtube]

2010s - RMC all the things. But hey, we still have 4 more years left!
 
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