D&D: Really Cool Packaging!

Look at this package. It's a thing of beauty:


On December 5th, BCI is releasing Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Series, the classic 1983 animated series based on the legendary adventures-by-the-roll-of-the-dice game. If you played this game yourself in the '80s, then you will easily recognize the design and layout of the DVD packaging above as being based on the design of the adventure modules that were sold by TSR "back in the day".

Great job, BCI.

Y'know, these guys have done some really outstanding packaging in the past. I first noticed it with their After School Specials DVD releases, where they went from from "Trapper Keeper" designs to "school locker" designs to "school yearbook" designs to an actual "school bus" design!

While their packaging has been less "gimmicky" since then, their package art itself has been outstanding, especially on the animated releases from their Ink & Paint brand. All look very good, but the crown of those are the He-Man and She-Ra titles, which features a composite picture that assembles together from the spine art, when the boxes are lined up together.

And their photographic covers for live-action show releases, like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, are nothing to sneer at either! So, as you can see, BCI's cover art is always well worth a look, just to appreciate what you're seeing.


But the D&D packaging above - a show I've long waited for on DVD - just took me by surprise nonetheless with exactly how good it is! I was expecting something as good as the other Ink & Paint titles from BCI, but man oh man! This just blew me away with how good it looks, having Tiamat (the five-headed dragon, a.k.a. "The Chromatic Dragon" featured in the series, taken from The Advanced D&D Monster Manual) look over the shoulders of the heroes of the series. And putting that picture smack as the centerpiece of a cover done in the traditional style of a D&D adventure module. Wow. Sensational design, sensational artwork!

So, I just wanted to share my joy for this picture with all of y'all, and commend BCI for a sensational cover that went above and beyond what I expected! Their absolute love for their products shines through with this level of care, and we reap the benefit here. Because in this case, you CAN judge a book (or rather, a DVD) by its cover: the love that BCI puts into these art designs shows up with good-looking video, good-sounding audio, great extras, and good entertainment.

What more can you ask for?


Well, if you're a fan of D&D the game, maybe you can ask for a cool webcomic to go with it. If you haven't discovered it already (in the 3 years it's been going!), get in on The Order of the Stick, the fun webcomic that you'll laugh at and laugh at, especially if you've ever played D&D itself. Yeah, I'm a geek. But isn't it fun to be one?