It’s all fun and games at Bakersfield Collector-Con

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — From card games and collections to comic books and cosplay, the Bakersfield Collector-Con offers something for everyone.

While not as well-known as the famous San Diego Comic-Con, this two-day homegrown event still drew crowds of enthusiastic fans.

Now in its 11th year, Collector-Con — held this year over the Aug. 9-10 weekend at the Dignity Health Arena, Theater and Convention Center in downtown Bakersfield — featured a wide variety of vendors.

Many catered to 1980s and ‘90s nostalgia, with VHS types, vinyl and vintage video games for sale. At one booth, soft enamel pins glittered under the overhead lights, featuring characters from franchises like Disney, Pokémon and other Japanese anime titles. Still others offered a wide variety of action figures, T-shirts and even sports memorabilia.

In addition to collectors, Bakersfield Collector-Con also attracts cosplayers, with a competition divided by age group. Superheroes were a popular costume choice, as were characters from Star Wars and various video games. There were also celebrities to meet, including anime voice actor Ray Hurd; actor Leilani Shiu, who has played various roles in the Star Wars franchise; and Tru Valentino, who plays Cuphead on the children’s animated series “The Cuphead Show!”

This convention, in short, is a celebration of all things geeky. And no such celebration would be complete without fan artists, who create their own art based on beloved franchises.

“I love the energy that comes from conventions and events like this,” said one such artist, Teresa, who just gave her first name. “I love being able to bring my art to these things and show them off to people.”

Teresa’s medium of choice is fuse beads: small plastic beads that are placed in patterns to create pictures, then heated so they fuse together.

She got started with the hobby more than 10 years ago, while living in Fresno.

A friend invited her to an event at a mall. Inspired, she went to a craft store, bought a bucket of plastic beads and started making Pokémon characters based on sprite images from the games.

Since around 2019, she’s had her own business selling the creations. She’s still largely inspired by games she loved as a kid, as well as popular anime characters.

Although most of her pieces take less than an hour to create, her largest creation, which measured 3.5 feet by 1.5 feet, took an entire week. It depicts Omnimon, a character from the Digimon franchise

All her work is handmade. “I put my heart and soul into these things,” she said. “You can’t buy them off of places like Temu.”

Juliette, another artist at the convention, got her start crocheting six years ago, after the birth of her first daughter.

“It really helped with my postpartum depression,” she said. It was “the only thing that calmed me down.” She started with blankets before graduating to less “boring” works, including stuffed animals of Pokémon and anime characters.

This was her first year at Bakersfield Collector-Con. She’s been vending at conventions like this for about a year and is one of the lucky artists who managed to make a full-time job out of her hobby.

“I got tired of working at my job after my second daughter was born,” she said. She took some of her work to a farmers market, where she “sold out so fast I had to leave to get more stuff in the middle of the market.” She saw similar success at the same market two weeks later, prompting her to quit her job and sell her fabric art full time.

Organizers of Bakersfield Collector-Con did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Nonetheless, fandom experts say artists like Teresa and Juliette help elevate what it means to a fan, taking it from simple consumption and consumerism to a community.

“In the age of shrinking attention spans … conventional wisdom claims we’re too time-poor for deep engagement,” writes Laura Fisher, an analyst at the company MIDiA Research, which studies the entertainment industry. “But fandom tells a different story.”

Like limited-edition releases and other collectibles, Fisher argues that fan-made merchandise helps drive interest and engagement even for already established franchises.

“Brands and artists often mistake fandom for mere consumption,” she writes, “but in a world where attention is the scarcest commodity, active fandom is the thing to have.”

It’s good for the fans, too. Participating in events like Bakersfield Collector-Con can give fans something to look forward to, positively boosting mental health and helping them deal with stress. It gives people a sense of community and can help them cope with hard times, according to a web page from the University of California, Irvine Counseling Center that extols the benefits of fandom.

“The camaraderie of fellow fans creates a space where understanding, empathy, and shared experiences form the foundation of genuine connections,” therapist Panicha McGuire, who describes herself as “a devoted member of multiple geek fandoms,” wrote last year in Psychology Today.

“In my quest to blend the art of therapy with the magic of geek culture, I’ve become a Jedi of the mind, a Whovian time-traveler, and a Marvel superhero enthusiast,” McGuire writes. She describes fandoms as “a haven for neurodivergent souls.”