Gwen Stefani, the 36-year-old singer, actress and fashion designer brought her trademark rock “n” roll style to the toy industry late last year with a series of limited edition dolls fashioned after herself and the Harajuku Girls with the likeness of themselves wearing outfits from their latest world tour.

The 10 inch dolls look like Stefani or one of her Harajuku Girl dancers and come with Stefani-inspired collectibles such as posters, pocket mirrors or trading cards.

The dolls are available at Target.com and other retailers and sell for around $24.95. Knowingly or not, Ms. Stefani has placed herself in direct competition with the Bratz and Barbie dolls.

Walt Disney and Warner Bros. are licensing their characters to the produce industry. Grocery shoppers will soon start to see SpongeBob Square-Pants spinach and Dora the Explorer oranges, Tweety Bird grapes and Tasmanian Devil apples.

Disney has licensed characters to Imagination Farms who has deals with 15 large growers across the country to provide fruits and vegetables for the Disney Garden brand. Disney’s head of food products licensing said “we’re doing it predominantly because it is the right thing to do, but secondarily because it is the right business to be in”. Imagination Farms plans to have 200 items in stores by the end of 2007. They feel that “the only way for us to grow our markets is to increase the consumption of fresh fruit among kids”. It seems to be working, plums and nectarines bearing the images of Disney characters have exceeded the amount of unbranded fruit sold last year for about the same price.

Along the same lines, Disney plans to cut trans fats from being served in their domestic theme parks by the end of 2007 and from licensed and promotional products by 2008.

The company will continue to license sweets for special occasions such as birthday cakes and holiday candies but will limit the number of “indulgence” items in its portfolio to 15% by 2010. In October, 2007 kid’s meals at Disney’s domestic parks started to be served with low-fat milk, 100% fruit juice or water along with side dishes such as apple sauce or carrots in place of French fries and soft drinks. Parents can request soda or fries at no additional cost.

Image Comics’ 48 page, $5.99 comic, which hit book store shelves in December breaks tradition with the most successful comic book franchises in that the scenes of their adventures are set mostly in New York – aka Gotham or Metropolis or in Los Angeles.

Meltdown, the brainchild of two Miamians takes place about one-third in Miami with scenes of Ocean Drive. The story’s hero, The Flare battles his archenemy, Maelstrom on top of a moving Metromover in Miami.

Miami being best associated with heat, David Schwartz, Meltdown’s creator knew early on that his hero would be somehow also associated with heat. Meltdown tells the story of Caliente, a young Cuban boy who is born with a temperature of 103 degrees so his parents name him Caliente. Cal lives a normal childhood with the exception that he can generate heat and flame at will. As an adult and after a short stint as a professional baseball player, Cal joins a government-funded superhero group and for little pay, works at saving the world. With seven days to live, Cal learns that his superpowers are burning him from the inside and thereby killing him. Cal decides to correct all the wrongs that he feels he has committed over the years.

After having found interest in his comic book at Image resulting from the book’s illustrations, Schwartz lost his artist. In classic “small world” form, in San Francisco’s Comi-Con comic book convention, he met Sean Wang, also from Miami and from the same High School. They teamed up and have gotten the two thumbs up from previews of Meltdown, as well as interest from movie studios. They are planning a second part to Meltdown in early 2007 and other stories are already in the works.

The largest US toy retailer got its hands slapped again as it faced backlash from child protection advocates over its aggressive web-based marketing campaign at Walmart.com’s “Toyland” microsite. It featured two “renegade elves” called Marty and Wally who encourage children to chose toys, add them to a wish list and then e-mail them to adults. As the children add the toys into an animated rocket, the elves announce that “choosing the toys is only the beginning; you also have to tell someone”. The elves say “if you show us what you want on your wish list, we’ll blast it off to your parents.”

Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood said the site “takes marketing to children to a new level”. Walmart’s elves site, which was featured in TV and print advertising, goes beyond moves by its online rivals, Target, Amazon and Toys-R-Us who have focused direct online advertising efforts at adults.

While Toys-R-Us’s online Geoffrey’s Birthday Club is aimed at children aged 2-10, registration requires parental consent, in line with the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.

Wal-Mart’s marketing manager for toys said the new site reflected the retailer’s belief that the dynamic of children and toys is changing. They have their own resources and money, are hyper-aware of trends and are an integral part of the shopping experience. We are very keenly aware there are certain boundaries we don’t cross. The site is very kid-friendly, without being pushy”.

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