Planet Business: Barbie, asteroid mining and taking on Apple

Image of the week: Barbie bodies

Apparently women come in all different sizes and shapes, and now 57-year-old Barbie does too. From left to right these are the new petite, tall and curvy Barbies standing next to her traditional tiny-waisted, pin-legged figure in a photo released by Mattel. The toymaker says the range of new models "better reflect a changing world", which to be fair, wouldn't be hard. Originally only a blonde Caucasian, Barbie is these days available in seven skin tones, 22 eye colours (who knew?) and 24 hairstyles (all of them amazingly glossy). In response, online fashion portal Lyst created Beach "Dad bod" Ken, Bearded Hipster Ken and Balding Ken. There's no sign yet of Great Personality Barbie, Seen Better Days Barbie or Weird Eyebrows Barbie.

In Numbers: Get the popcorn

169: Percentage increase in the value of popcorn sales in the UK over the past five years, according to a report by consumer research group Mintel.

8: Increase in the value of the crisp market over the same five-year period. Despite the best efforts of Gary Lineker, Mr Pringle and the addition of "salted caramel" flavours, crisp sales have actually fallen in the last two years.

10: Despite recent trends, the sales figures show crisps remain 10 times more popular than "star" performer popcorn. Once you pop...

The Lexicon: Solopreneur

Solopreneurs do it alone. Their entrepreneurial spirit has no need of co-founders or partners – their grand venture will ascend to glory or crash to Earth all on the strength of their own polymath-like talents. The typical solopreneur is racked with anxiety and plagued by sleeplessness, even when their businesses are growing, but their satisfaction rates are off the chart. The price of success is that the solopreneur must inevitably hire either contractors or employees to grow further. And then they have to become managers. They can no longer enjoy the bliss of being lone wolves. They have to deal with... people. And other people, as it turns out, like/need to take breaks from work. Can such weak types really be trusted? No, it’s just best to do everything yourself forever and ever, or until the day you burn out.

Getting to know: Gareth Cross

Cracked screen on your device? Most of us just live with the shame until we can afford a new one. Not Gareth Cross, this week's consumer hero. Cross, from Aberystwyth in Wales, took Apple to court after he found a crack in the screen of his Apple Watch just 10 days after buying it. Apple, the largest – no, sorry, the second largest – company in the world, naturally responded by saying the problem was not covered by the warranty. So Cross lived up to his name and brought his case to a small claims court for breach of Britain's Sale of Goods Act. Six months later, the little guy won. The court ruled that Apple must now pay him £429, which is the cost of the watch plus court fees. The case did become "a little stressful", he says, but "Mac fanatic" Cross isn't bitter. He plans to buy another Apple Watch. "For the 10 days I had it, I really liked it," says this example to us all.

The list: Asteroid fruit

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has announced a “space resources initiative” under which it will pump money into commercial companies established to mine asteroids. So why is it embarking on this crazy science-fiction plan?

1: Not sci-fi after all "We know how to get to asteroids, how to drill into them and how to get samples back to Earth," says adviser to the project Jean-Jacques Dordain.

2: Because it's there Some 12,000 near-Earth objects (with orbits between Earth and Mars) have been dubbed the "low-hanging fruit" of the solar system. In other words, this is some top fiscal space.

3: Easier to extract Heavy metals are rare near the surface of the Earth because they sank into the core. It might actually be less bother to drill an asteroid.

4: New frontiers Metals such as iron, tungsten and nickel may be manufactured into spacecraft – in space – and "offer new frontiers in space exploration".

5: Astronomical riches The really good stuff – the platinum-group metals – will be brought back and used to "stimulate economic growth on Earth". If all else fails...