Apple fan Rob Shoesmith is keenly awaiting the looming launch of Apple’s iPhone 5 but is less keen on the inevitable 12 hour sidewalk shuffle to retrieve the device from Apple’s Covent Garden store.

With Shoesmith’s regular friends deserting him for the long wait in favour of a good kip the gadget lover has discovered some new friends unlikely to protest at being inconvenienced – garden gnomes.

Camping out in front of the store with his “gnome friends” Shoesmith will be dishing out each of his garden loving midgets to curious passers by to embark on a series of “quests” in a bid to blag a ton of free stuff..

These tasks differ for each inanimate individual with Mr Fruit Blast looking for an individual to “take him out for the day” and bring back a piece of fruit - an apple presumably.

The promiscuous Mr & Mrs Boink are after something a little more intimate however, tap iPhones with them and you may be able to take them for a drink or night out: “they are open to invitations,” Shoesmith advises.

These shenanigans will be coordinated by Mr Hash Tag a web savvy gnome who is setting up Twitter accounts for each porcelain prop as Shoesmith quite sanely points out: “They don’t have voices and that will be the only way for you to understand them.”

Shoesmith will be running regular blog updates as the launch approaches