Bricks & Minifigs is a LEGO buy, sell and trade franchise based in the United States. It is not connected to BuyMyBricks, and it has no shops in the UK. Over the past few weeks a dispute involving one of its US stores and an 83-year-old collector’s LEGO Star Wars collection has gone viral, and several of you have asked us what is actually going on. Here is a full summary, drawn entirely from public reporting, with every source linked.

We are a UK retired-LEGO shop with no connection to any of the people or companies involved. This is a neutral account of a developing story, not a side in the argument. Our aim is simply to lay out what has been reported, clearly attributed, so you can make your own mind up.

A sealed LEGO Star Wars set, shown for illustration. BuyMyBricks has no connection to the dispute described below.

Who are Bricks & Minifigs, and is this the LEGO company?

Bricks & Minifigs (parent company BAM Franchising Inc) is an American LEGO buy, sell and trade franchise. It was founded in 2009, and bought in 2018 by brothers Ammon McNeff and Matt McNeff, who moved its headquarters to Utah. By early 2026 it operated more than 300 franchised stores across the United States and Canada, according to Wikipedia and the company’s own announcement that it had passed 300 stores. It has no UK locations.

This is the part most people get wrong, so it is worth being clear: Bricks & Minifigs is not the LEGO company. The LEGO Group, the Danish business that actually makes LEGO, is a completely separate company and is not involved in this dispute in any way. Bricks & Minifigs is an independent reseller of second-hand and sealed LEGO, the same way a used-car dealer is not the car manufacturer. It is also a different business from the UK shop Minifigs & Bricks in York, which some people have confused it with.

What actually happened, in order?

The account below is pieced together from US news outlets, the company’s own published statements, and the public record. Where a point is one side’s version of events, it is marked as such.

• 2000s–2023
  According to the company’s own timeline, Ed Mansell built a LEGO Star Wars collection of more than 780 sealed sets and around 1,200 minifigures over 10 to 15 years, spending roughly $20,000, intending to pass the proceeds to his grandchildren.
• Nov 2023
  Ed Mansell, then 83 and in poor health, asked his son Bryan to sell the collection. Bryan entered a consignment agreement with the operators of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Keizer/Salem, Oregon, reported by KATU and Gizmodo. The reported terms were a 35% commission to the store and 65% to the family.
• Nov 2024
  Bricks & Minifigs corporate terminated that store owner’s franchise and handed the store to new owners, Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson. Around the same time the Mansells ended the consignment and asked for the unsold sets back, citing missed payments. According to Dexerto, a large part of the collection was not returned.
• Mar 2026
  The previous store owner filed a lawsuit against Bricks & Minifigs corporate, alleging the store was wrongfully seized, per Techdirt. These are allegations in active litigation.
• Mar 2026
  YouTuber Benjamin Schneider, known as “Reckless Ben”, was arrested in Utah and charged with stalking, residential targeted picketing, disorderly conduct and trespassing in connection with activity near a franchise owner’s home, according to Wikipedia and Dexerto. Charges are not convictions.
• May 2026
  Schneider published a series of viral videos about the case. His first was titled “I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of LEGO”, a claim he made about the situation, reported by Gizmodo.
• 30 May 2026
  Bricks & Minifigs filed a lawsuit in Utah against Schneider, Bryan Mansell and others, alleging a coordinated harassment and extortion campaign, with 13 causes of action including a claim under Utah’s RICO statute and defamation, reported by Dexerto. These are allegations the defendants dispute.
• 31 May 2026
  Bricks & Minifigs CEO Ammon McNeff appeared on a LEGO community podcast, apologised to the Mansell family and offered professional mediation, per Yahoo Finance.
• 3 June 2026
  After Bricks & Minifigs asked Patreon to remove Schneider’s page, Patreon’s chief executive publicly refused, reported by Dexerto.
• 4 June 2026
  Bricks & Minifigs announced the permanent closure of the Salem/Keizer store and a mutual agreement to part ways with its franchise owners, citing what it called a “devastating social media campaign”, in its official statement and a press release. In the same statement the CEO repeated an offer to drop the lawsuit against Bryan Mansell and to make him “whole monetarily”.
• 8 June 2026
  Schneider was scheduled to appear in court over the criminal charges, according to Wikipedia. As of 9 June 2026, the outcome of that hearing had not been publicly reported.

What was the collection, and what were the consignment terms?

The collection at the centre of all this was a large LEGO Star Wars hoard: more than 780 sealed sets and around 1,200 minifigures, built up by Ed Mansell over a decade or more, according to the company’s own timeline.

It was placed with the store on consignment, not sold outright. Consignment means you hand your items to a shop to sell on your behalf: you keep ownership until each item sells, the shop takes a cut, and you receive the rest. The reported split here was 35% to the store and 65% to the family, per Gizmodo and Dexerto.

That distinction matters, because under consignment the question of who owns the unsold stock, and who is responsible if it goes missing, is different from an outright sale. It is one of the threads the lawsuits will have to untangle.

How much was the collection worth?

This is one of the main things in dispute, so we are not going to pick a number for you. The two sides are far apart, and both figures below are claims, not settled facts.

For context, Ed Mansell is reported to have spent roughly $20,000 building the collection over the years, according to the company timeline. The gap between that, the family’s $200,000 figure, and the company’s $95,000 to $100,000 figure is exactly the kind of thing a court or a professional valuation would need to settle.

What does Bricks & Minifigs say happened?

The company has set out a detailed account in its published statements. In summary, and attributed to the company:

• It says the November 2023 consignment was an unauthorised, private arrangement made by the then store owner, that consignment was never part of its franchise model, and that head office was not made aware of it at the time, per its statement.
• It alleges the previous store owner kept inconsistent records of what had been sold, and says point-of-sale data shows a portion of the collection was sold while the family received far less, set out in its timeline. The company has also acknowledged it did not hold copies of the original signed contract or full payment records, so we are not repeating its specific figures as fact.
• It says that after the change of ownership it found a number of the Star Wars sets in a back room and offered to return them to Bryan Mansell, and that the offer was declined, per its statement.
• It says the Salem store closed because staff, including local teenagers, faced threats and harassment driven by the viral videos, not because it lost a legal case, per the same statement.

What does the Mansell family say?

The family’s position, as reported by KATU and Dexerto, is that they had a consignment deal, that payments were missed, that they were denied access to check the remaining sets, and that when they tried to recover the collection a significant part of it was gone. The family values what was lost at around $200,000. These are the family’s claims, and the company disputes the valuation and the characterisation.

Who is Reckless Ben, and what did he do?

Benjamin Schneider, who goes by “Reckless Ben”, is a YouTuber and former competitive slackliner with a large following, per Wikipedia. In May 2026 he published a series of videos investigating the dispute, each watched more than a million times, according to Gizmodo. The first carried the title quoted above.

His campaign also involved publicity stunts, including lottery-style raffles and a mock rival business called “We Steal From Old People”, documented on Wikipedia. Police have alleged that a sign was placed near a franchise owner’s home reading “I stole a dying man’s life savings”, per Dexerto. That is a police allegation, not a proven fact.

What are the charges against him?

Schneider was arrested in Utah in March 2026 and charged with stalking, residential targeted picketing, disorderly conduct and trespassing, in connection with activity near franchise owner Joshua Johnson’s home, according to Wikipedia. A second charge followed, a search warrant was executed, and reporting says he could face up to five years if convicted. Schneider has alleged that his shoulder was dislocated by an officer during an arrest; that is his account and has not been independently confirmed.

He was scheduled to appear in court on 8 June 2026. As of 9 June 2026, the outcome of that hearing had not been publicly reported. Again, charges are accusations, not convictions, and nothing here has been decided by a court.

What are the lawsuits?

There are three strands of litigation, and all of them are unresolved:

• The previous store owner versus Bricks & Minifigs corporate. Filed in March 2026, alleging the store was wrongfully seized, per Techdirt.
• Bricks & Minifigs versus Reckless Ben, Bryan Mansell and others. Filed 30 May 2026 in Utah, alleging a coordinated harassment and extortion campaign, with 13 causes of action including a Utah RICO claim and defamation, reported by Dexerto. The company is seeking damages, legal costs, a share of money linked to the videos and merchandise, and a court order to stop the alleged conduct.
• The criminal charges against Schneider, described above, which are separate from the civil claims.

A lawsuit being filed is not a finding of wrongdoing. None of these has been decided.

How did the wider internet get involved?

The story spread well beyond the LEGO community. A crowdfunding campaign in support of the Mansells passed $445,000 by 8 June 2026, with Schneider saying the money would go into a legal trust for the family, according to Wikipedia. When Bricks & Minifigs asked Patreon to take down Schneider’s page, Patreon’s chief executive publicly refused to do so, as reported by Dexerto.

How has Bricks & Minifigs responded?

The company’s public response has shifted over the course of the story. Its CEO apologised to the Mansell family and offered professional mediation on a community podcast on 31 May 2026, per Yahoo Finance. In its 4 June 2026 statement it offered to drop its lawsuit against Bryan Mansell, to go through the records with him, and to make him “whole monetarily”, including for anything the previous owner failed to pay him. On the same day it announced the Salem store would close permanently and that it had parted ways with the franchise owners.

Is Bricks & Minifigs closing down?

No. As of 9 June 2026, the only store reported to have closed is the single Salem/Keizer location in Oregon. The company says it continues to operate more than 300 stores across the United States and Canada. It has not been found liable for anything. It has been sued, and it has sued others. None of that is a finding of wrongdoing.

What does this mean if you are in the UK?

Directly, very little. Bricks & Minifigs has no UK shops, so no UK customer has a set sitting in one of its stores. If you have searched “is Bricks & Minifigs in the UK”, the short answer is no, and we cover that in detail in our UK guide.

Indirectly, it is a useful reminder of how the second-hand LEGO trade should work, whether you are buying a sealed set or selling a collection you have spent years building. The principles are simple: get the terms in writing, understand whether you are selling outright or on consignment, and deal with someone who pays you properly rather than leaving you waiting.

That is how we run BuyMyBricks. When we buy sets from people, we pay in full, by bank transfer, usually within about one working day. No store credit, no consignment, no waiting to be paid as items trickle out. If you want the detail, our how we work page sets out exactly how we buy and sell.

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Written by Peter Pilling, BuyMyBricks. Published 9 June 2026. BuyMyBricks is a UK retired-LEGO specialist and has no connection to Bricks & Minifigs or to any party in this dispute.