"Is this all real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"
The topic of this article is of a real-life subject that has been mentioned "in-universe" in a canon source. The Harry Potter Wiki is written from the perspective that all information presented in canon is true (e.g., Hogwarts really existed), and, as such, details contained in this article may differ from real world facts.
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a chain of museums dedicated to exhibiting strange and unbelievable objects and people.[1] There was one located on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, England by 1997.[2]
The matchstick Hogwarts Castle at Ripley's Baltimore, along with the liquorice Harry Potter and Hagrid shawl portraits.
Ripley's has collections of art relating to the Harry Potter series. In March 2004, Patrick Acton of Iowa started construction on a scale replica of the Hogwarts Castle using 602,000 matchsticks. It was initially based off Michael Bramman's painting An Owl's Eye View of Hogwarts, though made several enhancements to it as the films progressed. Completed in 2006, it was first displayed at his very own Matchstick Marvels museum in Gladbrook.[4] On January 18th 2012, Ripley's Believe It or Not acquired the piece where they re-assembled it in their headquarters.[5] When the Ripley's Odditorium in Baltimore opened on June 26th that year, the matchstick Hogwarts was installed into the museum as the main attraction of the "Warehouse" room. Accompanying it was a liquorice portrait of Harry Potter by Jason Mecier and a knitting shawl by Steve Plummer with an optical illusion that formed an image of Rubeus Hagrid when one walked by.[6] In 2018, the matchstick Hogwarts Castle was relocated to the Ripley's Odditorium in Gatlinburg which had reopened on July 18th that year and was accompanied by a scrap metal dragon based off the Hungarian Horntail; formerly displayed in the London museum.[7][8] For a while, the Hagrid shawl and liquorice Potter potraits remained in Ripley's Baltimore until it was closed down forever in 2020.[9] The liquorice portrait of Harry Potter can now be found in Ripley's Surfers Paradise,[10] though the Hagrid knit craft has not been seen since then. Another optical illusion shawl of Harry Potter can be found in the original Odditorium at Saint Augustine.[11] An image of Harry Potter can be found on a collage sculpture of The Terminator by Enrique Ramos that was first displayed in Ripley's Orlando and can now be found in the Hollywood Odditorium.[12][13] While Ripley's has at least several coin-op "fortune telling" machines (ex. Zoltar) that try to get an extra buck out of you, located in select museums are "Magic Hat" machines that look and talk very similarly to the Sorting Hat.[14]
Ripley Entertainment also owns Louis Tussauds Waxworks, a chain of wax museums originally started by the great grandson of "Madame" Marie Tussaud.[15] In each of their four locations at Niagara Falls, San Antonio, Grand Prairie and Pattaya, they have a room dedicated to the three main characters as they appeared in the first three films with Hermione reading from a spell book, Ron holding his broken wand, and Harry holding the Sword of Gryffindor. A duplicate of these three were made for Louis Tussauds in Innovative Film City which burned down in 2018.[16][17] A statue of an owl can be found in Louis Tussauds Niagara Falls along with the one in Pattaya which has an exclusive set piece based off the Whomping Willow.[18][19] Also owned by Ripley Entertainment, there is a Guinness World Records Museum in Copenhagen that has a wax figure of Harry on his broomstick.[20]
Ripley's Believe it or Not! on Wikipedia