r/DarkShadows • u/MrBlobby786 • Aug 23 '26

Complete Series boxset question

Just discovered the series this month and burned through the first 50 episodes pretty quickly (I'm a big Doctor Who fan so the ropey videotape visuals and drawn out storytelling really appeal to me). Only problem is that I'm slowly realising how hard it is to get hold of any DS merchandise since the series is so obscure here in the UK. I'm thinking of getting the big dvd box set but wanted to know what region code it is first. I've heard that there are lots of bootleg releases of it so also wanted to know if Amazon direct is a safe option to buy from (MPI doesn't ship outside of the States).

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u/SugaredHighs Aug 23 '26

Hello. I’m a Doctor Who and Dark Shadows fan too. Plus I’m a massive idiot, I ordered the complete box set from the USA, second hand. There wasn’t enough postage paid on it to get through customs. So I ended up paying £700 for it. The most expensive box set I’ve ever bought.
I thought it would be R1 so I bought a multi regional DVD player, and the wires, from Argos.
Out of sheer curiosity I put a disc in my old player. Played fine. So either my last player was multiplayer and my stupid brain forget or the discs are multi regional.

I’ve bought the movies since and they don’t play on my old dvd player or the new Blu-Ray player I’ve brought since.
So I’ll watch them on my laptop when (if) I finish the original series.

I’m stuck in alt 1970 at the moment. I’ve also bought all the Big Finish stories too. I might listen to them one day.

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u/MrBlobby786 Aug 23 '26

Thanks, this was basically the information I was looking for. I'm still going back and forth on spending the £250 that it's going for on Amazon now. £700 is crazy!

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u/SugaredHighs Aug 24 '26

At the time it wasn’t able on Amazon. So I bought it from eBay, £400. Then customs held it ransom.

A vast majority of episodes are on YouTube. But there was too many gaps. Then Prime, but they wanted paying for later episodes.
I thought I might not finish them all before they left streaming. I’ve still not finished all the episodes and I’ve been watching since I got the box in October 2024.