FanExpo in Portland recently took place and there were lots of celebrity guests and fun activities to participate in. Fans of Supernatural, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Hazbin Hotel, Naruto, One Piece, and many more were abundant in attendance.
There were many things to be happy about during FanExpo this previous weekend, first and best of all…NO SNOW!!!! I could throw a party over how happy I was that there was no snow storm or ice roads that could stop us all from going to con. The second was the great lineup of guests the convention got for all the adoring fans, and third was a nice place to spend time with friends and family. I, myself, had a blast walking around and attending panels with a group of friends I only get to see during the few and in between big convention times. Though mainly we don’t get a lot of down time to just talk and have a nice time. As we all know, conventions are all about the go, go, go energy.
FanExpo provided a huge area, filled with tables and chairs and a few food trucks for con-goers to rest and fill up before heading back out on the convention floor. Although the lines were long for the food trucks, mostly because there were only four of them in the food-filled area, it was very nice to rest at a table. If you are a convention first timer or a seasoned pro, you all know how hard it is to find a nice spot to rest that isn’t on the floor. Having all the round tables and chairs were perfect for meeting up with friends and getting off our feet before heading back to see the rest of the convention. It was also just plain fun to catch up and do some fun videos while we were all together (it is always hard having a big group of nine people hanging out at a con).
I ended up attending the Naruto: Believe It! panel that had the voice actors for Sasuke and Temari from the series, who are married in real life. It was so much fun hearing about their experiences and how they met, along with how they both got into the business of voice acting. I loved how they knew how to promote each other better than they knew how to talk about themselves. I had no clue that Yuri Lowenthal was such a huge movie buff, I would love for him to do a panel on movies at a convention one day (it would be so much fun to hear his opinions on what the best movies are and why).
Ending the day at the Cosplay Foamcrafting for Beginners panel was the perfect way to end a long day at a convention. I love to learn and oh boy did I have a lot to learn in this panel hosted by Olivine Cosplay. I have made multiple props out of and with foam in my cosplay career, and of course I still have a lot to learn. Most importantly, safety! I feel really bad about everything I should have known way earlier to be safer in crafting, but hey at least I know now! But, I love learning and Olivine Cosplay did a fantastic job with her panel and I have a lot of notes I can use before starting my next cosplay project!
The vendors and artists in the exhibitor hall were great, there were lots of new booths I haven’t seen at conventions before. I found some really great finds, talked a lot with very nice people, and fell in love with two booths that now I need everything from. One of the two booths I’m referring to is Laser Nerd Studios, they have some of the coolest water bottles and I desperately need their red big Luffy (with the straw) and their new white fifth gear Luffy one as well. They are super cute, have lots of designs, and are very practical. I’m big on water bottles with a built in straw, since I love to drink water at the gym all the time. The other booth I couldn’t get over was the artist booth Ferio. They had some of the most interesting and thought provoking art of One Piece I have ever seen. I am obsessed with all of them, and the more I looked at their artwork the more I was pulled in and kept noticing small little details.
I would say that FanExpo Portland 2025 was a good convention to start the year with, and so much better than last year’s snow storm filled con. I’m already looking forward to next year’s FanExpo because this one was a lot of fun!
Were you at FanExpo Portland? What were your highlights? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
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