LYNNWOOD—What started as a handful of adults gathering in living rooms more than 25 years ago has grown into one of the largest LEGO fan communities in the Pacific Northwest. SEALUG — the Seattle LEGO Users Group — now connects more than 500 Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs) from Marysville to Olympia, bringing builders, collectors and creators together each month to share their passion for the iconic plastic bricks and the friendships built around them.
SEALUG is a Seattle-based community of AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) who welcomes builders, collectors, photographers, and anyone above the age of 18 who simply enjoys LEGO.
With the internet still being fairly new at the time, especially regarding social media circles, the early days of SEALUG looked a lot like a dozen people just getting together at people’s houses to build LEGO sets and bond over a shared interest.
As the hobby gained popularity over the years, the club eventually grew to where it is today.
“Conventions started coming up, LEGO started diversified what it was doing with Star Wars and Harry Potter, other things like this. So more and more adults started gravitating back to a hobby they probably enjoyed when they were a kid or teenager and started enjoying it again as an adult – sometimes with their own kids and sometimes just by themselves,” said RJ Coughlin, SEALUG Event Coordinator.
Coughlin was just three years old when he got his first LEGO set for his birthday. It’s the earliest memory he has, and he remembers playing with this one box of LEGO until his “arms fell off.”
Funnily enough Coughlin said his family also got a puppy that year, but he has “zero recollection” of the dog.
“I do remember the box of Lego, and how many bins it had, and what color the wheels were, and putting together the things, but the puppy? No recollection whatsoever,” said Coughlin.
Coughlin continued playing with Lego throughout high school but dropped the hobby around the time he went to college. What drew him back in was when LEGO started creating sets from popular franchises like Star Wars, Nintendo, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. This led to him looking for community online, where he found SEALUG and eventually BrickCon, where he now serves on the Board of Directors.
BrickCon is the longest running LEGO fan exhibition in the world and it takes place every year right here in Washington State (Seattle prior, Bellevue currently).
“My favorite thing about LEGO is the endless reuse of them. A lot of toys these days are basically landfill supplies, but people don’t normally throw away their Lego. People keep their LEGO, people sell their LEGO, people give away their LEGO, or they keep their LEGO until they have kids or grandkids. They don’t get rid of LEGO and I love that about this product. LEGO, from when I was a kid back in the 80’s, is compatible with the LEGO you have in the store right now,” said Coughlin.
SEALUG holds monthly meetings in various locations, where members meet, discuss upcoming events, build LEGO, share interesting or unique finds, or display their own recent creations for comment and feedback.
The club also has a presence at several conventions around the area like Emerald City Comic Con, the Great City Comic Show in Tacoma, festivals, community gatherings, STEAM events, and more. The club also frequently has displays at the Museum of Flight.
On January 24, 2026, SEALUG had a presence in Lynnwood at the Lynnwood Neighborhood Center to celebrate its opening including 21 members of the club who brought unique LEGO creations or display.
“LEGO is an introvert hobby. It’s something you mostly do alone, watching television or listening to the radio, it’s not really a team thing. But when you get a group of these introverts together it actually gets kind of loud, which is surprising,” said Coughlin.
Though many SEALUG members (including Coughlin) have auditioned for the show Lego Masters (a reality competition television series hosted by Will Arnett), Coughlin says SEALUG is less about competition and more about just getting together, socializing, and bonding over a shared interest.
The best way to get involved with SEALUG is to visit their social media, or website at: SEALUG.org, where they can find out more about the club and what they do, upcoming events, but most importantly a contact page where they can find out where the next meeting will be.
SEALUG has met on the first Saturday of every month for the last 25 years.
The main vision of SEALUG, Coughlin said, is mainly to bring adult hobbyists together in a social activity, outside of just sitting at home building Lego, in addition to meeting other people who might be building the same thing (like art, robotics, or complex mechanical builds).
“It’s really a way for people to find out their own niche in the community, but also to find out about other events. There’s other events, and other groups in other parts of the country that they might want to check out,” said Coughlin. “We’re a pretty inclusive group and it is a great resource for any adults who are looking for a social community built around the Lego hobby.”
SEALUG’s next big event will be the Kent Nerd Party on June 7 in downtown Kent. There, SEALUG will have a large display including a train layout and a lot of other things that are in the “scope of the nerd fandom and culture.”
Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen in Billund, Denmark, LEGO began as a wooden toy workshop before transitioning to plastic “automatic binding bricks” in 1949. The iconic, modern interlocking stud-and-tube system was patented in 1958, transforming Lego into a global, versatile, and, as of 1978, minifigure-populated creative empire.
In the 1990’s, however, LEGO nearly went bankrupt before rebounding with licensed sets (Star Wars, Harry Potter), a LEGO movie in 2014, multiple successful LEGO video games, and adult-oriented sets like its architectural series.
Today, LEGO is experiencing unprecedented, record-breaking, popularity with the Danish toy company achieving record-breaking revenue and operating profits in 2014.
There are also two LEGO theme parks in the U.S., one in California and one in Florida.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
