Five thousand unsold gold-plated Frank Lampard iPods are to be "melted down" following England's disappointment at the FIFA World Cup 2010, with the Dragons' Den firm 'Goldgenie' planning to re-brand them with kids' cartoon character Hello Kitty.

"It's not exactly melting down - it's a chemical process. But basically Goldgenie are recovering all the gold so they can use it again. They thought loads of people would want them during the World Cup but the backlash against England was so bad that they've had to scrap the whole thing," The Sun quoted a TV source, as saying.

Earlier, the soccer star teamed up with Dragons' Den firm Goldgenie to launch the 24-carat iPod Touch, costing up to 599 pounds with his signature at the back.helsea ace Frank Lampard launched the 64GB gold-plated iPod at Harrods. He onated all his royalties on the sale of the iPods to the Teenage Cancer Trust. He also made an up-front donation to the charity.

"It's disappointing the iPods have not reached sales targets as Frank wanted to help the TCT for which he's a patron. We may have over-ordered due to World Cup hopes, but that's no reflection on Frank's popularity," a Goldgenie spokesman said. (ANI)