Childish character who'd seem out of place in New York (5)
I believe the answer is:
noddy
'childish character' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'of place in new york' is the wordplay.
'of' becomes 'o''.
'place' becomes 'dd' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'new york' becomes 'ny'.
'o'+'dd'='odd'
'odd' placed inside 'ny' is 'NODDY'.
'who'd seem out' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for noddy that I've seen before include "Blyton character - tern" , "Blyton's Toytown boy" , "Enid Blyton hero" , "children's character" , "often with big ears seen in capitals" .)