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