Since the first Harry Potter book in the series, the world has been gripped by the imaginative world of Harry and his wizard friends.

Fantasy fiction in books and films always spawn lots of props unique to their inner world, along with the usual videos, DVDs, computer games and movie posters. The Harry Potter story is particular rich in strange animals and artifacts, and therefore has produced a lot of Harry Potter merchandise.

In houses across the globe, children run around in Harry Potter costumes, waving their magic wands. They may wear wire rimmed glasses and snack on candy such as Cockroach Clusters or Bertie Botts Beans.

In fact, it’s possible to buy an entire cauldron full of candy. Harry Potter merchandise could provide a whole theme for a child’s bedroom, with wallpaper, drapes, and bedding.

They can decorate their room, just like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizards, with school banners for each house; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. If they’re unsure which house they should be in, they can buy a Hogwarts Sorting Hat to tell them.

The Harry Potter stories are not just about Harry, and the Harry Potter merchandise  involves the other characters and strange creatures as well. Items include a Mad-Eye Moody Eye Patch and Albus Dumbledore mask, tassle hat and tall wizard hat. Fans of puppets can have a phoenix  or a griffin puppet. Trading Cards with scenes from the films featuring all the heroes and villains can be swapped at school.

Quidditch is the exciting sport played at Hogwarts, and it’s possible to re-enact the moves with a Harry Potter merchandise broom and a Golden Snitch. The brooms come in different designs but remember it’s just pretend and you can’t really fly! 

Harry Potter merchandise provides fun but also some beautiful items to admire. There are wonderfully designed chess sets, which are replicas of the chess pieces as featured in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, (published in the USA as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). There is also a sculpture available of the regal Fawkes the Phoenix.

Train sets are always popular with the kids, and parents too. Harry Potter merchandise includes the very magical Hogwarts Express to transport them to wizard school. There are also models of the car which Ron drives in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Each movie release produces its own Harry Potter merchandise, including computer games, and there are also games which just feature Quidditch. Every aspect of the sport is explained with lessons on the different skills needed. The moves can be acted out further with a collection of action figures that are also sold.

Adults too can enjoy Harry Potter merchandise. The chess sets are marvelous to play with, and some parts of the computer games are quite challenging. Of course, the kids may not even get a look in with the train sets!

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It would be out of the question to identify every hobby that exists, let alone document every hobby.

Nevertheless, we do our best to provide comprehensive guides to a variety of hobbies and games and information about how to get involved in each. Whether you’ve got a hobby in mind or are just trying to get ideas about something new to do, hopefully you will find it here.

Whether you are into video games, bird watching or knitting, or you just want to learn a new game, like how to play blackjack, bob for apples or play scrabble on the computer, it is all right here.

From well known hobbies like stamp and coin card collecting to some rarer pastimes, like collecting fossils, you will learn what tools you will need, what you need to know and how to be successful at just about any hobby or game you can think of. We have articles in the following categories:

• Collecting (1)
• Toys (1)

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