Produces successors to some leading puppets (6)
I believe the answer is:
spawns
'produces' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'successors to some leading puppets' is the wordplay.
'to some leading' suggests taking the first letters.
'puppets' becomes 'pawns'.
The initial letter of 'successors' is 's'.
's'+'pawns'='SPAWNS'
(Other definitions for spawns that I've seen before include "Leads to man" , "Deposits eggs like fish or frogs." , "Makes large numbers" , "produces offspring" , "Of fish, lays eggs" .)