This a great show, which is why it gets 3 stars. It loses two because this set is a pale imitation of the R1 version.

And that picture looks like the R1 version...but believe me the actual thing doesn't look anything like as good. It's just a big shoe box with all the old box sets stuffed inside.

As someone else mentioned, the R1 version is a thing of beauty. Much smaller and compact, with raised "gold" embossing. Magnetically sealed, felt-lined, secret compartment, colour hard-back booklet.

This show deserves a great complete season set, the R1 set is most definitely that, the R2 one is NOT! If you don't care about packaging and it doesn't bother you that they've gone to great effort in the US and absolutely zilch effort for us, or you can't play R1, then fine, it's still a brilliant tv show. But my advice? Go buy a multi-region player for ??30 and buy the R1 version.

As everybody else has already said - GET THE REGION 1 VERSION.

The Region 2 version is just a large cheap boxset with every season slotted in with it's normal packaging, and lets face it - the thing is HUGE and ways a tonne!

The Region 1 version is small and looks amazing! It's velvet lined, the DVDs are housed in cool booklets, it has a hard cover book, and a secret compartment!! (If you need to know more, log onto www.rambaldidvd.com)

Not only does the Region 1 box set work out ??45 less (Including shipping), but it also arrives very quickly. I bought my copy of the Region 2 one a month ago, and yet it still hadn't been dispatched on monday, so I cancelled the region 2 box set, and ordered the region 1 box set on Tuesday. Well, today is Thursday, and my box set arrived this morning - yes, it only took two days to arrive!!

Please, please, please - Buy the Region 1 box set, I cannot stress this enough! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE REGION 2 VERSION!

Firstly i give the actual show 5 stars, it's the packaging that only gets 1. I saw this boxset in a high street shop and decided not to purchase it as it was simply a cheap box housing the same individual DVD boxsets that i already owned.... however i saw that the R1 version was a much more comprehensive boxset and worked out cheaper that the R2 even with shipping costs included, so i decided to treat myself! The R1 version is truly a thing of beauty, with a magnetic lid, well designed 'book like' disk sleeves and even a sectret compartment hiding the all important special features disk, and to top it all off, it is a real limited edition set with only 40,000 made. if you can play R1 dvd's get that set not this inferior R2 version.

Alias is such a fantastic series & I was so sad to see it end! - get the complete series if you can - its brilliant - THOUGH I do STRONGLY recommend you get the R1 version available on Amazon.com as it is so much better designed, lots of extras & much much smaller in size - The R2 version is simply the normal seasons 1-5 boxsets stuffed inside a big (I mean BIG) box with a Rambaldi design - anyhow whichever version you get you will love this series - but for die hard fans like me - only the R1 version will do!!!

Just received this - the box contans all five series, each of which packaged in the same way as the individual series sets. There's a bonus disc in a 'slim' case and no book. The outer box is made of fairly sturdy cardboard. This is a cheap(ish) way to obtain all 5 series and the bonus disc, but not sure if this compares favourably with the R1 equivalent.