Pretzel Flipz

These appeared for a brief time in the very early 90s and I was completely obsessed with them. Standard salted hard pretzels covered in milk chocolate. It was one of those 'Marmite' type products that you either loved or hated.

I'm guessing that the British population just wasn't quite ready for something that exotic as after a couple of years building up a bit of a cult following, Pretzel Flipz disappeared from our shelves for good. After a little while of desperately searching the supermarket shelves, followed by a brief period of mourning, I moved onto other snacks. After all, you can't let candy rule your life and there's always another tasty snack down the line somewhere.

However, those more open minded Amercians, much more comfortable with the ideas of a sweet and salt snack than us stick-in-the-mud Brits, took Pretzel Flipz to their hearts and the Flipz have continued to flourish in the US. This means they can now be hauled back across the pond for us faithful Flipz lovers to enjoy.

Big Bag of Pretzel Flipz - £6.99 from ShinyShack.com

Smencils

These remind me of a craze that went on when I was a kid for scented stationery. There were scented erasers, scented felt tips and of course, scented pencils.

The whole scented stationery idea has been brought bang up to date with the creation of Smencils. These pencils come in original graphite and in a variety of colours and are a pretty impressive scent sensation.

Cleverly, the outer pencil bit that would normally be made out of wood has been replaced with recycled newspaper. The paper is soaked in the gourmet scent then rolled around the pencil core until you get a standard size pencil completely impregnated with an amazing scent.

As you'd expect, many of the scents are fruit based, like Orange, Grape, Black Cherry and Watermelon, but there some innovative surprises in there too, like Cotton Candy, Root Beer, Chocolate and Cinnamon. Perfect for picking your favourite scent, or get a selection for some smelly variety.

Each Smencil comes packed into its own individual scent-sealing tube for freshness and is guaranteed to brighten up that boring old paperwork!

Smencils from £1.49 from ShinyShack.com

Classic Comicbook - War of the Worlds

When a dramatisation of H G Wells' War of the Worlds was broadcast on the radio back in 1938, some of the listeners really believed that alien invasion was nigh.

The classic story of alien invaders and their battle for control of planet Earth has been reprinted in retro comic book style. It's a great addition to comic collections and a great way to get familiar with a fantastic sci-fi tale. I love the depiction of the aliens too - grey and creepy with evil yellow eyes.

Classic Comicbook - War of the Worlds - £2.99 from ShinyShack.com

Travel Slanket

The Slanket has been an incredibly popular winter item. Guys bought them for their girlfriends, wives got them for their husbands and couch potatoes bought them for themselves.

Most of us appreciated the snuggle factor of a cosy fleece blanket with sleeves, perfect chilly nights in front of the TV.

Well now the Slanket comes in the perfect size for camping trips and flights. The handy Travel Slanket is slightly smaller than its bigger brother, but still big enough to keep you warm and cosy. The slimmer fleece fabric allows it to fold up nice and small inside its matching travel bag, ready to be whipped out for nights around the campfire or long haul plane flights.

Oh, and it comes in purple. What's not to like?

Travel Slanket - £24.99 from ShinyShack.com

Henry Desktop Vacuum

The familiar face of vacuuming, in a handy desktop size! Everyone know Henry - the classic cylinder vacuum cleaner with the smiling face and cleaning power that's hard to beat!

Now you can use Henry to keep your desk clean as well as your floor. The Henry Desktop Vacuum is battery powered and small enough to sit on your desk. He'll easily suck up dust and crumbs.

For those who prefer pink, then Henry's girlfriend, Hetty is also available in desktop form, complete with eyelashes and pink colourscheme.

What better way to drive the dust bunnies from behind your monitor?

Henry Desktop Vacuum - £12.99 from ShinyShack.com

Vinyl Style Recordable CDs

Refer to 'records' these days and there's a whole generation that won't have a clue what you're talking about, but for the rest of us, vinyl still holds some very happy memories of the first single you bought or a favourite album. There are even a few luddites around who firmly belief that nothing sounds quite as nice as good old vinyl.

If you're after a bit of nostalgia value, why not try burning your latest set of tracks onto these recordable CDs. They work just like normal CDs but are disguised to look like little vinyl records. Each comes with its own record-style sleeve, so you can enter the digital age, but still fool yourself your back in analog times.

Vinyl Style Recordable CDs - £8.99 from ShinyShack.com

Nunzilla

Guaranteed to put the fear of nuns into pretty much anyone, Nunzilla is a spark-breathing clockwork nun that just won't quit!

Not content with windup nuns generally, someone has now gone one better and made one that shoots sparks out of her mouth while she walks.

The perfect gift for Catholic School survivors, Nunzilla may be small, but she is mighty. Wind her up and watch her go.

Nunzilla - £4.99 from ShinyShack.com

Pants Purses

Keep your pennie in your pants! These bright, colourful purses will really make you smile next time you're digging out some loose change.

Made from hard wearing ripstop material and printed with a range of bright, happy designs these pants purses are roomy enough to carry a big pile of change and different enough to always get a second glances. How many people do you see fishing change of out a large pair of pants?

They're the perfect antidote to shopping stress.

Pants Purse - £6.99 from ShinyShack.com

Marshmallow Fluff

Fluff is currently occupying the podium for my most favourite novelty food ever. Yes, I'm a fickle type and am apt to switch favourites from time to time, but I can see Fluff having a special place in my heart forever.

If you like Marshmallows, you'll love Fluff. Fluff is essentially melted marshmallow in a jar. Somehow, and let's not ruin the mystery by speculating how, some utter food genius has managed to create a substance just like the melted bit in the middle of a marshmallow when you've toasted it to perfection. And it just comes in a jar - no campfire, toasting fork or burnt fingers required.

You can eat it in a variety of ways. I've created my own easy version of S'mores with digestive biscuits, chocolate spread and Fluff, which is pretty popular. I have to confess though, that my absolute favourite way is straight out of the jar on a spoon and not sharing it with anyone! Health food it ain't but for a delicious sweet treat, you can't beat it.

Fluff also gains extra novelty food bonus points by being suitable for Vegetarians, which is a real bonus as trying to find anything marshmallow-related that veggies can eat is a real struggle.

Marshmallow Fluff - £2.99 from ShinyShack.com

Slanket

You can just tell that the designer of this clever invention has sat in a chilly room trying to read a book and sip a mug of tea while failing to keep warm. I know I've been there. Even with a duvet over my knees, there's not way of keeping arms and upper body toasty warm and still have a spare arm available to turn the pages.

Until now. The Slanket addresses the knotty problem that occurs when someone wants the warmth of a blanket without the restriction of having their arms tucked away. The solution is simple if only you can visualise it. Put sleeves on your blanket! (SLeeves, blANKET - did you see what they did there? Clever eh?)

The Slanket is made from wonderfully cosy fleece, comes in a range of colours to match your bedroom or sofa and lets you wrap up nice and warm while still zapping away with the TV remote or supping your soup. Ingenious, practical and of course, machine washable!

The Slanket - £34.99 from ShinyShack.com