I know this has been done, redone, killed, resurrected, and zombified, but nonetheless.

What new must-have mods have been released? New apps (like the Mod Manager), cool race mods, body mods (wasn't there one that buffed up when you got more strength?), just whatever you think a new game needs.

I'm also interested in any wood elf make overs out there. I love playing wood elves, but I feel that the default wood bosmer are to ugly to redeem.

Don't forgetting "beaten like a dead horse".

I know when I came back a few months ago I missed a surprising amount of stuff. My first suggestion is to head over to www.tesnexus.com and check the Files of the Month and the Top 100. Then check the Top 100 in each category and see which ones you like. You'll probably see a lot of familiar mods still on the Top 100 list.

Also, FCOM is the first thing I recommend to anyone. That and Wrye Bash are my two absolutely essential things for Oblivion.

Ain't no such thing as "must have"... except these (IMO and all that) :

Latest official patch (the Shivering Isles version if you have SI)
[possibly] LAA 4GB Patch (applied to Oblivion.exe; depends on RAM, etc.)
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch (if...)
Unofficial Official Mods Patch (if you have any of the DLC from Bethesda, like Knights of the Nine, etc.)
Oblivion Mod Manager *and/or* Wrye Bash (if you are planning on lots of complex / potentially conflicting mods, Wrye Bash is very nearly a must)
BOSS (+ the latest masterlist; keep getting the updates for this, as well as for all the mods and mod tools you install)
Oblivion Script Extender (unless you honestly will never install a mod that requires it, which these days, is less than likely)
Streamline
Oblivion Stutter Remover
TES4LODGen (generally speaking, it's good to have this, and use it)
RefScope (tentatively, this makes the list as well; more definitely as you add more and more mods)

Otherwise, it's all down to personal preference and so forth. Figure out what you like and what you dislike about the vanilla game, what appeals to you in games in general (or other specific games), what ideas you have that mods might have already achieved...

edit: And if you have specific requests / ideas / queries / memories of mods from whenever, there's the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1099078-mod-detectives-114/, which is for exactly that.

All of these are quite old, but I agree that these are must-haves. New mods I come to think of:
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26219
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26389 and all of theNiceOne's other mods (especially his Economy mod.)
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30973 (haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be very popular).

Nice list. I have half linked here: http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/index.php?page=stabilization_and_optimization_mods. The other (almost) half is here: http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/index.php?page=programs_and_utilities. The last one is here: http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/index.php?page=troubleshooting_mods.

You know what? I should've just linked to your site (again!)

Because, yeah, I forgot about Fast Exit 2 (d'oh!) and possibly one or two other things. OP: Tomlong's site is your go-to place. Or should be.