But sadly, this still goes on today. There were no five-inch figures of Raven or Starfire in the line of Teen Titan animated series toys. And despite the fact that there were three very important, major female characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender, there were no toys of any of them (a joke about which was in the Avatar Puppet Pals clip made for New York Comic-Con last year).

Obviously, like I said, boys do have a harder time playing with what are perceived to be “girl” toys than girls do playing with “boy” toys, but a lot of these female character were important to the cartoons/properties they were apart of. Who’s to say that boys wouldn’t want to play with them too, given the chance? And I know there are girls out there who like these shows (I liked shows like that as a kid). Shouldn’t they get to play with action figures too?

It hasn’t been updated in nearly 10 years, but the supremely awesome Sarah Dyer used to maintain Action Girl’s Guide to Female Figures. It’s still a fun site with a few reviews and it was, at the time, an impressively-researched list.

Image of the Coraline Bendy Fashion Doll Assortment as seen and for sale on Entertainment Earth. I used it mostly because I want these now.