3. Lightning Rod (Dollywood)

Opened: 2016

The introduction of Outlaw Run leads us to one of RMC's most legendary (and complicated) attractions: Dollywood's fabled Lightning Rod. Opened in 2016, Lightning Rod used Topper Track (remember, classified as wood despite its very sturdy ride experience) to be what few could've imagined: the world's first launched wooden roller coaster. Rocking uphill via LSMs, Lightning Rod was one of a kind. It was also... well... temperamental. 

After years of intermittent operations and continuous adjustments to the track, train, launch system, and operations, Dollywood made a big move in 2020. Basically, Lightning Rod became the first RMC to be RMC'ed. A park spokesperson announced that 2,160 feet of the ride's 3,800 foot long course (about 57%) would be converted from (wooden) Topper Track to (steel) I-Box track. That would include the ride's more problematic zones, including the uphill launch. So technically, it would be misleading to say that Lightning Rod was still a launched, wood coaster. But it did gain a new notable element: becoming a Mutant Coaster – the first to ever literally have some wooden track and some steel track!

Lightning Rod's story got even weirder when, in September 2023, the park announced that after consultation with RMC, they'd decided to scrap the launch altogether. Instead, the ride would convert to using a "high speed chain lift," propelling a new set of trains up the lift hill at a continuous 13 miles per hour (about the same as Intamin's cable lifts on Millennium Force and El Toro, for example). The park suggests that the lift will be fast enough that riders might even feel a "pop" of airtime as it crests the ride's first hill. But more importantly, it'll probably be open to guests a lot more often. 

4. Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster (Six Flags Fiesta Texas) and RailBlazer (California's Great America)

Opened: 2018

In 2018, Six Flags' other Texas park and Cedar Fair's doomed Great America served as the co-test-beds for a whole new kind of coaster: not I-Box or Topper Track, but the new "Raptor" track design. The "Raptor" make uses a single rail set-up with narrow, in-line-seating trains that essentially leave riders straddling the track spine itself. Visually stunning, Raptors like Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster and RailBlazer are like modern works of art. They look beautiful, delicate, and simple. 

But once you step aboard, you quickly learn that they are major thrill machines. With its serpentine, streamlined trains, Wonder Woman and RailBlazer positively tear through the layout. It's relentless, cramming in RMC's by-then signature combinations of weirdo maneuvers, insane overbanks, and mixed-up inversions. 

A point-of-view video of the ride (above) practically feels like it's being played in fast motion as the coaster fluidly flies through its course without so much as a breath. Chaotic, unpredictable, and compact, it's no surprise that Raptors have become well-loved additions at Silverwood (Stunt Pilot), Six Flags Great Adventure (Jersey Devil), and Six Flags Magic Mountain (Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage), and there's no doubt that the ride's adaptability, small footprint, big thrills, and relatively low cost will mean plenty more of this RMC appetizer are coming. 

5. Steel Vengeance (Cedar Point)

Opened: 2018

Though it wasn't necessary a "first" like New Texas Giant, Outlaw Run, Lightning Rod, or Wonder Woman, it's now time to switch our list from RMC prototypes to RMC legends. And among them all, few can stand up to Steel Vengeance. Like Texas Giant, Cedar Point's own overbuilt '90s woodie (Mean Streak) was a real mess. Incredibly rough, the walk-on ride was a waste of real estate at the "Roller Coaster Capital of the World," and after years and years of fan speculation and daydream, the ride's impending RMC process was finally made official in August 2017.

Steel Vengeance is a monster of a ride. Using every tool RMC learned in the wood-to-steel I-Box conversions that came before, the ride used the bones of Mean Streak and expanded skyward. The result is RMC's first hypercoaster, rising more than 200 feet over the park. Steel Vengeance is phenomenal. One of the longest roller coasters on Earth (5,740 feet), it screams down a vertical 90° drop, through four inversions, and through countless insane elements that embody all the best of RMC.

If you haven't ridden Steel Vengeance, move it to the top of your roller coaster bucket list. But don't let that discount the other must-see rides on this list... As a matter of fact, keep the RMC roadtrip going with the last iconic additions on the last page...