My Xena Collection Part 1 by Phineas Redux

 My 'Xena' Collection by Phineas Redux

This essay is going to be a series of image references. Every image is from my own personal collection. I don’t pretend to have an extensive assemblage of ‘Xena’ material; only the video-tapes and DVD’s, with a few magazines and books. Nothing to blow my trumpet over; but, for what they are, here are a few of duxmy very own visual bits and pieces referencing ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’.

First up is the very first video-tape I bought of ‘Xena’. Here in Britain they were rather late arriving in shops; the first edition was a single video-tape with two episodes. It dates from 1999. The series continued to arrive on the shelves over the next 18 months at long intervals. Each video-tape cost around £8-£10.

Then, around 2002, box-sets, of three video-tapes, were put on sale. Each box-set contained 11 episodes, and you had to wait several months after the first to be able to buy the second thereby completing the full series set. These cost around £30 for each box-set.

In about 2007 the first DVD’s became available. As can be seen they also came out in boxes containing three DVD’s with 11 episodes. So you had to buy two box-sets to own the complete series of 22 episodes. Each box-set cost around £30 again. Buying these things was not for the faint-hearted or cash-strapped. I often found myself surviving the week with baked beans on toast at most mealtimes in order to buy the DVD’s (you think I’m joking?).

For some reason I cannot remember now I found it impossible to buy series 1 and series 2 in complete box-sets. I think I was wavering, waiting for them to come out on DVD. So I never bought them on the original boxed video-tape set; but eventually discovered them for sale in a rather cheaper form. A single carboard box held three slim plastic cases with two DVD’s in each, containing all 22 episodes of the series. So I was able to buy both complete series 1 & 2 in single boxes. They retailed at around £15 each, which was a large saving on the earlier DVD box-sets, and a massive saving on the original single video-tapes offering only two or three episodes.

So this is where my DVD ‘Xena’ collection stands at the moment. I’m not quite clear about the Blu-ray possibilities for the series; but if they are, or become, available in this format I’ll be at the shop banging on the entrance-door at 6.00am. Until then I feel a retrospective viewing marathon coming on. See ya later, folks.