The news has broken, and the clever Christmas shopper has already bought everything online. Now to head to Henry St and pick up some cheap wrapping paper and a large Toblerone.

The list of this year’s must have Christmas toys has just been revealed, and sees the ladies from Frozen thawing out your credit limit in the rush to pack the space under the tree. Christmas crazes come and go every year, so here’s a look at some of the toys that you were playing with, pining over, or queuing for over the past few decades…

• Mr Potato Head

The humble potato got a facelift in the early 50s, and was a total flop until a fledgling toy company named Hasbro took a chance on Mr and Mrs Potato head. Accessorising the spud with plastic body parts became a smash when the toy was the first one ever to get an advertising campaign. It went through a renaissance in the 90s when Mr Potato Head was a supporting character in Toy Story, and now themed ones have become highly collectible.

Christmas: 1952

Units sold: 1m

• The Hula Hoop

The humble plastic ring that’s frustrated generations of rhythmless Irish people for half a century became the most coveted toy in the late 50s. Starting off as a bamboo exercise tool, when it went plastic and was marketed, the hoop swooped to spots on present lists in record numbers – and can still be found in toy shops worldwide today.

Christmas: 1958

Units sold: 25m

• GI Joe

Another hit for Hasbro, GI Joe, who became Action Man on this side of the Atlantic, broke through in the late 1960s when the toy company figured out a way to show boys that they really like playing with dolls too.

Christmas: 1969

Units sold: 2.5m

• Star Wars Action Figures

These are worth a pretty penny nowadays, with the myriad characters of George Lucas’ universe poorly rendered in plastic. Expecting a child to never even consider unboxing them seems ludicrous these days, though anyone prescient enough to have done so is sitting on a goldmine.

Christmas: 1977

Units sold: 6m

• Rubik’s Cube

Erno Rubik developed his devilish cube in 1974, but it wasn’t until it appeared at international toy fairs a few years later that its twisting complexity made it a cultural phenomenon. Being able to solve them still impresses today, and infuriates jealous onlookers to boot.

Christmas: 1980

Units sold: 4.5m

• Cabbage Patch Kids

Essentially just a doll with clever marketing, the Cabbage Patch Kids craze led to riots in stores around the world when stocks ran low. The dolls, which come with adoption certificates in the boxes, went global in 12 months, sales tipping over the billion-dollar mark, and today more than 115m of the dolls have been adopted around the world.

Christmas: 1983

Units sold: 2.5m

• Trivial Pursuit

The perennial trivia game, which turns piece-of-cake subjects into piece-of-pie warfare, only debuted in 1979, created by two Canadian newspaper editors. Turning them into millionaires, the pair finally sold the rights to the game to Hasbro in 2008, pocketing a cool $80m.

Christmas: 1983

Units sold: 1.3m

• Transformers

After a change in the law spearheaded by Ronald Regan, the Transformer empire began in earnest when cartoons were given permission to essentially be a 30-minute commercial for toys in 1983. A year later and a Hasbro spokesperson was telling the media: “We have 25 factories in Tokyo working on nothing but Transformers,” all to meet the demand. And with the recent movie franchise, it seems the Autobots will be around for a while to come.

Christmas: 1984

Units sold: 10m

• My Little Pony

Hot on the heels of Transformers, My Little Pony followed the exact same business model. And just three years later had established itself as a toy titan.

Christmas: 1987

Units sold: 16m

• NES

The Nintendo Entertainment System redefined the role technology would play in Christmas, becoming a mammoth hit in the late 80s. It wasn’t just the console, as more that 32m games cartridges helped it become the toy that woke up the world to home gaming – though Nintendo believes it could have sold 40 per cent more had there not been a global microchip shortage.

Christmas: 1988

Units sold: 7m

• Beanie Babies

Cute bean bags became something of a global currency in the 90s, when we all lost the run of ourselves and believed there was a future in stockpiling these plush toys. It was all a marketing strategy by Ty Warner Inc., and the world bought into it. A Google search today reveals that the rarest Beanie Babies probably won’t bank more than €300.

Christmas: 1994

Units sold: 60m

• Buzz Lightyear

Sorry Woody, but every 90s kid wanted a Buzz Lightyear action figure following the smash-hit release of Pixar’s first animated feature, Toy Story. The failure of toy manufacturers to make enough of the figures to meet demand actually became a plot point in the movie’s sequel.

Christmas: 1995

Units sold: 3m

• Tickle Me Elmo

The crimson creature whose chuckles brighten up the lives of children all over the world broke out of Sesame Street and made himself a worldwide icon as a giggling teddy. Elmo’s recommended retail price of $30 soon ballooned to $1500 on eBay, when parents late to the game realised there was a shortage.

Christmas: 1996

Units sold: 1m

• Furby

We’re still not sure what a Furby actually is, falling somewhere between animatronic owl and demon-possessed battery-operated torture device. Either way, it was the absolute must have toy of the Christmas season, muttering its incomprehensible gibberish, Furbish, a language made up of Japanese, Thai, Hebrew and Mandarin. Furby has made something of a comeback over the past few years, with an upgraded model.

Christmas: 1998

Units sold: 1.8m

• Razor Scooters

Somehow, on the crest of the wave of welcoming in a new millennium, adults were convinced that riding an updated version of the scooter was a viable option on their early morning commute, pushing sales of this fad into the millions.

Christmas: 2000

Units sold: 5m

• Bratz

The hyper-sexualised doll is no longer on sale, but beat Barbie in the doll wars of the early 21^st century, terrifying feminists with each new boy-crazy and fashion-mad edition. Then came the empire, including a live-action film, TV series, computer games, music albums, and merchandise amounting to $2bn.

Christmas: 2001

Units sold: 12m

• Nintendo Wii

After taking a console kicking from Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo got back into the game by adding a motion-sensitive controller that could follow your body’s movements, and making it an essential component of the game play. It was a massive hit with gamers of all ages, and more Wiis sold that Christmas than PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 units combined.

Christmas: 2006

Units sold: 3.2m