The store's chase light adorned sign that also contains the last mentions of the sorely missed Rock Legends Wax Museum, which closed in 2019.
December 1st will be a sad day for both heavy metal fans and the Niagara Falls tourism landscape. Rockworld, the souvenir and merchandise store that has sat on Centre Street half a block past where it becomes Clifton Hill for nearly half a century, will close permanently. The store has been a staple of the top of Clifton Hill since it opened in 1983, and is predeceased by the iconic Rock Legends Wax Museum which the same owners operated upstairs from 1997-2019.
The wax museum's collection had been sculpted entirely by the owner, Pasquale Ramunno, who coincidentally wasn't even a rock music fan and allegedly had an ear for opera. Thankfully, he had an eye for art, and apparently for business as well, as Rockworld became a legendary pit stop for Ontario metalheads, punk rockers, and classic rock fans alike for generations. A section of the store named the "Niagara Souvenir Centre" offered more generic Canada and Niagara Falls themed items. When the wax museum was added upstairs in 1997, it greatly helped further the identity of the more thematically darker attractions in the up and coming "top of the Hill" area that was becoming popular with teenagers and young adults, joining Alien Encounter, The Criminals Hall of Fame, and the Screamers haunted attraction chain (Rockworld was actually neighbors with the short-lived 3rd Screamers location named "Horror Manor"). The museum's giant neon guitar and wall of musician's faces on the front of the building became a staple sight of the area.
Rockworld, Rock Legends Wax Museum, and the iconic neon guitar.
After years of success, the wax museum's visitor numbers unfortunately started slowing down in the mid-2010's as the Niagara Falls tourism landscape (and greater amusement industry as a whole) went through a turbulent period. By 2014, all the attractions I listed above that used to rub elbows with Rockworld were gone. With mounting pressure from record labels and their exorbitant licensing fees, the decision was made to close the museum in October 2019, allegedly (according to a conversation I had with the owners some years ago) due in part to YouTube's infamous copyright algorithm flagging vlogs of the museum for use of music, thus alerting media companies to the museum's existence. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic less than 4 months later essentially halting the entire tourism industry for two years, it appears the decision may have been the right one. The incredible and impressive Locomoland, a model train attraction that replaced the wax museum upstairs and was operated by a third party, also unfortunately closed down this past summer (stay tuned for more on that). This also decreased traffic through the store as the wax museum formerly let out into Rockworld, therefore Locomoland did as well after it.
The store was carried on for years by Ramunno's children Nick and Maria, but they've decided it's finally time to retire. I was a regular at the store, not for the reasons I'm a regular at most Clifton Hill area attractions, but as a heavy metal fan. The store was well known in the metal scene (allegedly even "back in the day") as a place to get rare and imported merchandise, and as Ontario's other rock stores, headshops, and other headbanger hangouts closed throughout the 2000's and 2010's, the king of them all stood strong. Nowadays, you have essentially three options to buy music merchandise. If you're looking for merchandise from an A-list band (Metallica, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etc.) you might be lucky enough to find something at a run of the mill mall store like Hot Topic or Spencer's, but don't expect them to be quality, or anything other than the most basic designs. If you're a fan of more obscure bands like me, you could order them online directly from the band or an online merchandise store, but as a Canadian, expect shipping costs as high as the price of the item you're buying. The third option is buying merchandise at a band's concert, if you're willing to pay an arm and a leg, and if you're willing to wait for the band to roll through a city near you, which is especially problematic if a band usually only tours Europe or even worse, no longer exists. Rockworld was the only place left you could buy an officially licensed Razor, Destruction, or Mercyful Fate shirt in person and for a decent price, examples I use because this is probably the only excuse I'm going to have to mention those names on this website.
Not only that, they carried and variety of items you simply don't see anywhere anymore like patches, flags, pins, and a variety of spiked/studded accessories. The best part? The store didn't charge the city's infamous "tourist tax", and proudly displayed that above the door. It'll be sad to see the store go, but the owners definitely deserve a good rest after everything they've done for both the Niagara Falls and metal communities. The store is currently on massive discount and getting more and more picked over by the day, so if you were a regular here or even want to squeeze in your first visit before it's too late, I suggest you make the voyage as soon as you're able. For die-hard rock fans or attraction operators, the museum's impressive collection of over 70 figures hand sculpted by Pasquale Ramunno (including the ones that were relocated to the store after the museum's closure), are in storage and still up for grabs, but expect to pay what these works of art are worth. If you've ever wanted an identical replica of Alice Cooper in your living room, Gene Simmons in your basement, or Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie in your Halloween display, now is the time to act.