Unlike Bleach and One Piece, Naruto doesn't have that many good looking figures. Despite how insanely popular the series has been over the last ten years, fans have had to put up with plushies and sub-par trading figure sets. However, not all of these sets have been garbage. Both Premium Heroines sets have been excellent examples on how to make decent looking mass-produced figures at an affordable price. The second Premium Heroines set is also what got me into collecting period.

Follow me after the jump to get a peak at these little beauties.

A quick note here: The Tsunade (the lovely set of curves beneath this paragraph) is actually the chase figure from the first Premium Heroines set. She was included for this shoot because she fit thematically with the other ladies and, well, because she's a sexy character and looks great in a kimono. Shoot me for being a male.

Alright, so the second Premium Heroines set has several of the main girls from Naruto in kimonos, maching a scene from the fourth opening of the show. In it you see the cast running by a wall with a mural of these pretty ladies in costume looking alluring and coy. I'm really glad to say that they nailed the look pretty well.

Here's Sakura, the female lead of the show. Like the rest of the girls, Sakura is not attached to her base. Rather, she is separate and can be posed on the base if you so desire. I like how the trading fig catches a certain amount of intensity in her expression. The paint job overall is well done, impressive considering the typical track record of most figure sets.

There were five girls in the set, each with their standard colors and an alternate that looks this.

I'm not a huge fan of the secondary color, however I am a huge fan of Hinata, so I splurged and picked up the alternate color when I made my order. Speaking of the soft-spoken cutie, here are her normal colors.

Absolutely moé-licious! One of my few complaints of the set as a whole are the chunky hands and feet the sculptor gave the girls. That's typically something that really bugs me, but considering that these are in the $5-$8 range I'm not too annoyed by it. Considering how much I like the rest of the figures also makes me ignore my typical pet-peeve.

Here's Anko, one of the older ninjas who acts as a teacher/supervisor for the kiddies. Unlike the other girls, Anko comes separated at the hip and arm and must be put together. The sculpt hides these areas well, plus you get a shot at her panties if you peek up the kimono. Not...that I'd ever DO that. You know, just...letting all of you know...ha, ha...ha

...

MOVING ON we have Shizune, assistant to Tsunade and a solid medical ninja.

Yeah, she's kind of boring, just like in the show. I only got her to complete the set. She isn't bad, just doesn't look as great as the other lasses in set.

To counter this meh, I close with Kurenai, the teacher of my moé queen Hinata.

Though the character is quite the looker in the show, she unfortnately suffers because of her exposed flesh. Though the sculptor tried, they didn't nail the sexyness of her legs and the piece as a whole isn't as nice as it could be. Everything else looks nice. Oh, and you can see the panties on her too if you look close.

DON'T JUDGE ME!

So yeah, I picked these up at Anime Castle when they first came out. I lucked out because the place I preordered them from couldn't guarantee that I would have a full set and Anime Castle had each of the girls for sale individually, both the normal and variant colors. I canceled my preorder in time and ordered the whole set (and the extra Hinata.) For my purchasing efforts, they also included the postcards of the girls posing that came with the trading box, so I got some nice cards for posting. I still have the Hinata on one of my binders.

So there you have it. Without my interest in these figs and the excitment that I built up for them, I wouldn't be as big a fan of toys that I am today. When I opened them up at my friends house, I wasn't disappointed and I started looking into what toys for which shows were coming out when. That build up for certain releases fed itself until I was ordering a figure a month and planning my budgets out several months in advance to afford the latest announced PVC.  I'm happy to say that little has changed through the years!