While boys focus more on video games for action outlets, major toy distributors have trouble with action figures sticking to the shelves, Illon Kantro, director of corporate communications at Abrams Gentile Entertainment, told TDmonthly Magazine. “Girls have not become as engrossed in the video game scene, so they are where the growing market in action toys will be found,” he noted.

A number of manufacturers are working on action products that cater to young girls’ sense of style while invoking the action hero within. Many are slicing themselves a piece of the spy-toy pie. Forward-looking retailers will have their eye on the upcoming TV show, “Alex Cryss Chronicles,” expected in summer 2006.

Dr. Michael Brody, chair of the Media and Television Committee of the American Academy of Child Psychologists, suggests to retailers, “There is incredible competition for a child’s mind, so if you want to get their attention, you need something that rehearses for adult roles, is terribly clever and celebrity branded.”

Read more on this topic in Pennie Hoover’s article, “Tween Girls Kick Butt” appearing in the November issue of TDmonthly.

Writer's Bio: Pennie, a graduate of Indiana University School of Journalism, is a freelance writer and lives with her husband and three children in Visalia, Calif. Read more articles by this author