Nichrome wire is great fun to play with or to make little devices out of if you're bored and have a bunch of junk sitting around.
Most classic-style toasters use nichrome wire wrapped around mica plates. You can obtain quite a large amount of it by cannibalizing an old toaster. A 9 volt battery will heat up to 2 inches of toaster wire to red-hot; 1 inch will heat to white-hot. This drains batteries very quickly, since it is essentially a short-circuit.
A match head wrapped in nichrome wire, powered by a 9V battery makes an excellent homebrew igniter, if you need something ignited. Like a model rocket. Or a physics project.