Best Christmas gifts of the 1990s
If you were a kid in the 1990s, these were the presents you begged for. Each one shows the year it was the Christmas hit, and there is a search link for today's version if you'd like to gift the nostalgia.
12 gift ideas.
These are ideas, not shop-checked picks. Where we have checked a product at a real shop we link to it; otherwise "Search for this" opens a plain Google search for your region.
-
1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures
The cartoon-and-toy boom that dominated Christmas lists.
-
1991 Nintendo Game Boy
The pocket console that made handheld gaming normal.
-
1992 WWF wrestling action figures
Chunky figures for a generation of living-room wrestlers.
-
1993 Talkboy tape recorder
The pocket cassette recorder from the film Home Alone 2.
-
1994 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers figures
The TV series began in 1993 and the toys were the big seller the Christmas after.
-
1995 Sony PlayStation
Launched in 1995 in Europe and North America, and quickly the console to own.
-
1996 Tickle Me Elmo
A giggling, shaking plush that sold out so fast that shoppers queued for it.
-
1997 Nintendo 64
A Christmas console for the late 1990s, with four controller ports for the whole family.
-
1997 Tamagotchi
A tiny egg-shaped virtual pet that needed feeding. Released in Japan in late 1996 and a craze by 1997.
-
1997 Beanie Babies
Ty's little bean-filled toys, first sold in 1993 and at the height of the collecting craze in 1997.
-
1998 Furby
A talking, blinking toy that was hard to find at Christmas 1998.
-
1999 Pokémon Red and Blue (Game Boy)
Reached North America in September 1998, and the craze carried into 1999.