So it’s been over a year since I did a convention review due to the pandemic but this last weekend I decided to go down to Jacksonville, FL, and enjoy Collectivecon. Now I know the pandemic is still far from over; however, I did notice the safety procedures they were using such as temperature checks and limiting the number of people in the building, and really respected the amount of work that was being put into the safety of its attendees.

Vendors/Artist Alley

I honestly felt a sense of relief seeing a vendors hall again and while there weren’t many vendors and artists they were well spaced out. So I think a reason for the number of vendors is to allow extra space to keep the fans socially distant. The variety was really nice I managed to find a cosplay replica of the Fire Emblem sword Falchion and my wife found a really cool pixel art of her favorite Pokemon Snorlax. It was a lot of fun navigating through the booths and seeing the variety of items that were available.

Panels:

I will be honest I didn’t attend any of the panels. In the schedule all of their panels were Q&A events with the guests which I’m sure were all awesome. I was more invested in shopping though and seeing what items I could take home. I will note how awesome it was that they took 30 minutes to clean the panel room as one of their safety precautions so it was a nice touch. I do wish there were fan panels and I don’t know if the lack of them is normal for this event, so as of right now I’m thinking that’s due to the pandemic.

Guests:

So this convention actually was more for my wife than for me. I was eager to meet Jason Liebrecht because of his involvement with Fire Emblem: Heroes. My wife wanted to meet almost the entire voice actor part of the guest list, all four voice actors, because of their involvement with My Hero Academia. We absolutely enjoyed meeting them and honestly, it was really quick and easy to get in line and meet them as the lines were never very long. It’s really nice to not have to spend a huge amount of time waiting in lines because that gives more time to do all the other stuff the con has to offer.

Organization:

So I decided to add this section as a new addition to my con reviews. This convention was really well organized as all of the panels occurred on time. Even though I didn’t attend any of the panels I know this because they had someone on a microphone announcing the panels which were really helpful. The convention also had panel and autograph schedules spread out so it was easy to keep track of when the voice actors we wanted to see were busy or signing. If that wasn’t helpful enough the announcer also would make announcements when guests were returning to their table. Honestly, this level of organization made this a very stress-free event.

Overall this was a super fun event that had a lot of cool vendors for shopping and fun guests to meet. While I didn’t go to any panels it was super organized and I greatly enjoyed that. The convention took several measures to ensure the safety of its guests such as temperature checks, socially distant lines, and vendors and they had hand sanitizer stations all over the place. This convention really did everything right to offer a great experience for its fans. The one and only flaw I have to note is its size. Since it’s a small event I wound up spending more time driving to the convention than at the convention itself. Now that is more of an issue of the location I’m in but it also means it takes a lot of time and effort to attend which means that if it’s an event that’s going to have about four voice actors I would honestly prefer if my wife and I would have a need to meet most if not all of them to motivate us to do the drive to get there.