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Home / Lifestyle

Throwback Thursday: The best Christmas presents of the 90s

Jenni Mortimer
By Jenni Mortimer
Chief Lifestyle & Entertainment Reporter·NZ Herald·
7 Dec, 2017 01:17 AM4 mins to read

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How many of these 90s toys were on your Christmas wish lists? Photos / Supplied, Pinterest

How many of these 90s toys were on your Christmas wish lists? Photos / Supplied, Pinterest

This year the toys topping children's most wanted Christmas lists are Feisty Pets and Lol Surprise! Dolls, items savvy kids of today will have likely Googled and added to an online wish list.

Which is not quite how we rolled back in the 90s when The Warehouse catalogues were our go-to and parents needed only to refer to that cut-out picture of a Super Soaker we'd stuck on the fridge to know what we were after.

Other top gifts ranged from bears you could "doodle" all over without getting in to trouble to the introduction of tech-based toys such as Tamagotchis and Poo-Chis.

Proving it was an unbeatable decade for truly radical toys, here are 10 of the best Christmas gifts from the 90s.

Chatter rings

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Chatter ring. Photo / GrabOne
Chatter ring. Photo / GrabOne

You were all that and a bag of chips if you could bust out tricks on a chatter ring.

Come midday on Christmas, you were driving your parents up the wall with the clattering metal as you perfected your toss and catch and one-handed spins.

Doodle Bear

The joy of the Doodle Bear was that you could scribble on it to your heart's content and Mum and Dad were totally sweet with it because it could go through the washing machine and come out good as new.

Tamagotchi

Tamagotchi. Photo / Getty
Tamagotchi. Photo / Getty

The Tamagotchi was a 90s gateway toy: If you could keep the digital pet alive, you were ready for a real live pet.

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However, in the height of summer when you were busy riding to the shops for an ice block, it was pretty easy to forget about your Tamagotchi and not uncommon to get home and find your new friend recently deceased.

See-through-phone with own phone line

A personal phone in the 90s was a rite of passage, signifying your entry into adulthood and that you could be trusted to have "door shut" conversations.

You earned extra cool points if your parents caved to your demands and gave you your own phone line.

Poo-Chi

Poo-Chi. Photo / Getty
Poo-Chi. Photo / Getty

The Poo-Chi was a real tech wonder when it was launched 17 years ago.

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It walked, flipped, obeyed commands and made you feel like you were really living in the future.

Walkman

If you unwrapped one of these on Christmas morning it was inevitable that you spent the rest of the day dancing around the house with your Walkman bulging from your cargo shorts pocket.

It had its flaws, it skipped, weighed a tonne and you were limited to around 12 songs. But it was the beginning of the portable music era and you were there.

TY Beanie Babies

Beanie Babies. Photo / Pinterest
Beanie Babies. Photo / Pinterest

So, they may never have made us the millions we thought they would, but Beanie Babies were still a super cute Christmas gift.

They were themed for the seasons, came with a cute name tag and some of them, such as the Princess Diana bear, did actually end up being worth a small fortune.

Street Sharks

Street Sharks came roaring onto our Christmas wish lists as the most badass action figures of the decade.

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They were angry, wore studded cuffs, rode motorbikes and played in a totally cool rock and roll band.

Action Man, eat your heart out.

Pocket diary

Electronic diary. Photo / Pinterest
Electronic diary. Photo / Pinterest

The pocket diary was the perfect place to keep all your secrets safe, including the name and number - landline, of course - of your childhood crush.

Providing you could remember your password, the handy device provided you with hours of fun - until the battery died.

Hit clips

Before MP3s there were Hit Clips, which let you listen to just 15-seconds of your favourite song: the height of cool to you and almost as irritating as your chatter ring to your parents.

They came on cool key chains and you felt awesome letting your friends request a tune during lunch time.

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A short 15-seconds worth of Britney Spears, 98 Degrees, and NSYNC will be forever imprinted in your brain.

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