New Look at Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Red and Black Dragon Revealed Via Bookends

WizKids has provided Dungeons & Dragons fans with a new look at the 2024 Red and Black Dragons thanks to a new set of bookends. This week, WizKids revealed two new 7-inch resin bookends, one featuring the head of the newly redesigned red dragon and the other featuring the head of the newly redesigned black dragon. Both individual bookends will be released in Q2 2025 with a recommended retail price of $59.99. Notably, WizKids has stated that this will be the start of a new line of official D&D Bookends.

As part of D&D's 50th anniversary and the release of a new set of Core Rulebooks, Wizards of the Coast also redesigned the game's chromatic and metallic dragons, marking the first significant redesign of the game's iconic monsters since Ted Lockwood's versions of the dragons for D&D 3rd edition. Wizards has revealed each of the dragons at a slow and deliberate pace, using the new dragons to promote the just released Player's Handbook. The dragons themselves will be in the 2025 Monster Manual, which will be released in February.

WizKids also recently announced plans to produce a miniature of the redesigned Black Dragon, marking the first of the new dragons to get their own tabletop miniature.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I can see where you are coming from, but I love the new look of the Black Dragon.

It seems this was, in part, an artifact of viewing the image on a mobile screen rather than my PC, so that explains some of it. (That is, the green in the black dragon is much more emphasized on my phone screen vs my monitor, while the red in the red dragon fades into shadow and thus appears mostly a warm black.)

Personally, the one and only aspect I'm mildly positive about is the skull look. I dislike the rest of the new black dragon intensely, and not just because the wings trigger my arachnophobia pretty severely. The xenomorph knobs and frankly bizarre horns are both bad design choices IMO.

 

[Weiley31]

I really like the new Crow(movie) faced black dragons.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Pricy hunks of plastic. Not sure what they were thinking with the "swamp water" pool part of the black dragon.

Black Dragons live in swamps

 

[RayInDC]

If you use this dragon in your campaign, name it Stendahl and then award DM inspiration to any players who get the reference.

 

[NerdyRotica]

It seems this was, in part, an artifact of viewing the image on a mobile screen rather than my PC, so that explains some of it. (That is, the green in the black dragon is much more emphasized on my phone screen vs my monitor, while the red in the red dragon fades into shadow and thus appears mostly a warm black.)

Personally, the one and only aspect I'm mildly positive about is the skull look. I dislike the rest of the new black dragon intensely, and not just because the wings trigger my arachnophobia pretty severely. The xenomorph knobs and frankly bizarre horns are both bad design choices IMO.

I suppose it's a matter of taste. I absolutely hated the look of the old black dragon, the worst of the bunch imo. But it's my favorite among the redesigns. I like the xenomorph vibe and while the horns ARE bizarre I really dig the look of them. They look miles better than the old ones. Looks like they can have a few variations too, given the official artwork. But all very twisty.

But when you think about it horns on dragons make no sense in the first place. In the existing animal kingdom only herbivores have large horns - they're defensive structures. The only exceptions I can think of are the brow horns of the dinosaur Carnotaurus (which are probbly used against rivals for mates) or the nose horn on Ceratosaurus (which is more of a crest, probably not used as a weapon).

So it doesn't really matter if the horns are bizarre. Actually, if they developed through sexual selection then the more bizarre the better!

 

[Stormonu]

Let me rephrase. I disagree. We don't know the exact details of the deal but I don't see any way that it would be "Make whatever you want, whenever you want, at whatever volume you want for next to nothing." That makes no sense.

We don't know exact details, but I guarantee that the money companies make money off of licensing is a decent chunk of change. Typical deals are somewhere between 5-10% of the retail value each sale, often with other up front charges. We don't know the details of what WotC is getting for this or other licensing agreements, but they aren't letting WizKids or Lego do this stuff out of charity.

NOTE: technically these may be royalty fees instead of licensing fees, it's just a difference on how the agreement is written and how payments are determined. Since we don't know how it's set up I'm using licensing.

Licensing/Royalty fees are enough they kept Games Workshop afloat through the financial crisis a score of years ago.

Last I recall, they can get up to 25% of MSRP (for the likes of Star Wars RPG rights), but are usually in the 5-15%.

 

[Christian Hoffer]

Licensing/Royalty fees are enough they kept Games Workshop afloat through the financial crisis a score of years ago.

Last I recall, they can get up to 25% of MSRP (for the likes of Star Wars RPG rights), but are usually in the 5-15%.

I've been told it's a low percentage, but obviously don't have specifics to share.

 

[doctorhook]

Red dragon is giving a lot more tongue than I’d expect with all those sharp teeth and fire breath…

 

[Azzy]

This is what monetizing the brand looks like.
tchotchkes, widgets and doodads.

Basically, anything that you'd find in a Hot Topic store.

 

[Azzy]

I may end up buying the black dragon one at some point.