Donna Went’s “The Magical World of Harry Potter” in LEGO has been an ongoing labour of love for the best part of a decade. Inspired by both the popular books and movies, she first bought a Harry Potter castle set for her son’s 8th birthday. However, she was disappointed by the size of the Great Hall, so she decided she would have a go at building her own version.

Since that first modification of the Great Hall, Donna has continued to build various sections of the layout with her whole family contributing to the design and technical features.

The massive castle has been exhibited on a regular basis over the past eight years, though Brickvention Online was the first time this particular version of it had been seen publicly—and its popularity with attendees resulted in it achieving the Best in Show award.

We reached out to Donna and learned her favourite parts of build are the moving tree and the dueling wizards (seen in the video at the bottom of this article), but she also loves all of the little details she has been able to include. After many hours of building, she has been able to incorporate well-known elements from the movies as well as unique ones from the books. It’s entirely possible to see new features every time you look at the build which means it always draws a crowd.

In spite of the scale and level of detail, “The Magical World of Harry Potter” isn’t finished. It’s likely to never be finished as Donna is forever coming up with new ideas and different story elements to include. It currently occupies six trestle tables which makes it around 12 feet in length (over 3.5 meters), and it’s still growing. Donna credits the project as being responsible for bringing her into the world of the AFOL community after building in secret for many years.

I’m looking forward to seeing how her already amazing creation further evolves over the next few years. If you would like to follow further developments of “The Magical World of Harry Potter,” you can follow Donna on Instagram or Facebook.

What was your favorite part of the video tour of The Magical World of Harry Potter? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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