Bricks and Minifigs accused of theft of over $200,000 dollars worth of Lego sets

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In November 2023, an Oregon family consigned a large collection of sealed LEGO Star Wars sets to a Bricks & Minifigs franchise store in Keizer, expecting the store to sell the sets and pay them a share of each sale. After Bricks & Minifigs corporate repossessed the store in November 2024, collector Bryan Mansell says most of the collection, which he values at $150,000 to $200,000, was gone and that he was never paid for it. Bricks & Minifigs denies any theft, says the consignment was an unauthorized arrangement made by the store's former independent franchisee, and says most of the sets had already been sold before corporate took the store over. The dispute drew wide attention in May 2026 after a series of YouTube videos about it; the suit on the public docket is one Bricks & Minifigs and its franchisees brought against the YouTuber and the family for defamation, and the YouTuber faces misdemeanor harassment charges in Utah.

Background

Bryan Mansell and his father assembled the collection over roughly 15 years. According to figures Mansell gave the Salem Business Journal, it held more than 780 sealed sets and about 1,200 minifigures, including a sealed Cloud City set he valued at more than $10,000 and individual minifigures worth more than $1,300 each. Mansell said he had put about $30,000 into the collection over the years and had intended it as a long-term investment.

On November 22, 2023, Mansell signed a consignment agreement with Chrystal Law-Gorman, who then owned the Keizer store. The Salem Business Journal, which reviewed the signed document, reported that the store would take 35 percent of each sale and pay Mansell the other 65 percent in monthly installments, that the sets remained Mansell's property until they sold, that the store had to insure them for full replacement value, and that any unsold sets were to be returned within ten days of the agreement's termination.

The collection's value is disputed, and the figure in the headlines comes from the family and from the company's own past marketing. Mansell put the total at $150,000 to $200,000. The Salem Business Journal independently reviewed the inventory spreadsheet and found the boxed sets alone documented at roughly $60,335 to $98,480, with the 1,200 minifigures tracked separately. A Bricks & Minifigs Facebook post promoting the collection in November 2023 described it as "estimated to be worth well over $200,000." In its later statements, the company said the only documentation the family provided showed a collection worth $60,000 to $80,000.

Store seizure and the missing collection

Bricks & Minifigs corporate took control of the Keizer store on November 14, 2024, and the accounts of that night diverge sharply. CEO Ammon McNeff told the Salem Business Journal that the Law-Gormans owed roughly $200,000 in unpaid obligations, including the store's purchase price and royalties, and that the franchise agreement let the company offset those debts against the store's assets. The Law-Gormans said they had approached corporate about selling the store, not closing it, and that a representative seized it the same day without notice, refused to let them conduct an inventory, and forced them out that night. The store and its assets passed to Baker Bricks LLC, run by Brandon Best and Josh Johnson.

Whether corporate knew about the consignment is the central factual dispute. Law-Gorman told the Salem Business Journal that on the night of the seizure she told the corporate representative about Mansell's consignment, and that BAM's then director of operations, Ki McAllister, acknowledged it on a speakerphone call and said that because the new operator was taking over the business he would be taking over the consignment as well. She said the exchange was captured on the store's security camera and given to the Keizer Police Department. Mansell said the same video contradicts the company's later claim that it knew nothing about the arrangement. McNeff declined to discuss the video, citing the litigation, and maintained that corporate was unaware of any consignment when it took the store. In its own statement, the company acknowledged that a "Corporate support employee verbally said the new owner would 'take all that consignment liability'" when ownership changed, but said the employee was not making a binding agreement.

Mansell formally terminated the consignment on November 22, 2024, demanding sales records, unpaid proceeds, and the return of his remaining sets. He said he was met with denials, that the new operators said they knew nothing of the consignment, and that corporate told him its evidence was insufficient and directed him to pursue the Law-Gormans instead. Mansell said he later sent a buyer into the store who purchased one of his consigned sets, which he argued showed the sets were still there and still being sold. He summarized his position to the Salem Business Journal:

I filed charges against everybody because I didn't know who to believe ... but I can prove for a fact that my sets are still in that store and these guys are lying about it.

The two sides also dispute whether the store was permitted to take consignments at all. McNeff said consignment is prohibited under the company's franchise rules and could have been grounds for termination had corporate known; the Law-Gormans said their franchise agreement contained no such prohibition and that corporate raised no objection when it learned of the deal. The Salem Business Journal reported that it asked Bricks & Minifigs for documentation of the claimed prohibition and that none had been provided by the time it published. The Keizer Police Department confirmed an open investigation, which Mansell said had been referred to the Marion County District Attorney to decide whether criminal charges were warranted.

Bricks & Minifigs response

Bricks & Minifigs published two statements on its company blog, on May 21 and May 28, 2026. The company said corporate, the entity BAM Franchising, Inc., was not a party to the consignment, that such arrangements are prohibited under its franchise agreements, and that after taking over the store it found only a small quantity of sets, which it valued at $2,000 to $5,000, that might have belonged to Mansell. It said it offered those sets back and that the offer was refused. The company rejected the claim that it stole the collection:

Neither corporate nor the incoming owners (Josh Johnson and Brandon Best) ever took, sold, or concealed this collection.

The company also said the store closed temporarily not because of any lawsuit but because its staff, including teenage employees, faced harassment, stalking, and bomb threats driven by the videos, and it said it would tighten inventory and record-keeping requirements across its locations. In late May 2026, McNeff appeared on a LEGO-community podcast, apologized to the Mansell family for the difficulties they had faced, and said he remained willing to take part in professional mediation.

Schneider's videos and Utah charges

The dispute reached a large audience in May 2026 through Benjamin Schneider, a YouTube creator known as Reckless Ben, who published a series of videos about the case, one of which drew around three million views. In the videos, Schneider accused Bricks & Minifigs of stealing Mansell's collection. His May 21, 2026 video was titled "I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of LEGO."

The videos and a later lawsuit describe confrontations involving Schneider and others in American Fork, Utah, where store operator Josh Johnson lives. According to the American Fork Police Department and reporting by KSL and the American Fork Citizen, people connected to Schneider repeatedly approached Johnson's home between March 8 and March 11, 2026, including leaving packages while dressed as a delivery driver and hanging a sign near the property stating that Johnson had stolen a dying man's life savings. Schneider was arrested on March 11, 2026 and was later charged with stalking, a class A misdemeanor, and targeted residential picketing, a class B misdemeanor. He has represented himself, has not entered a plea, and is presumed innocent; a protective order was granted to Johnson on May 20, 2026.

Schneider accused the American Fork police of bias and of shielding the store owners. On May 29, 2026, the department released a statement and body-camera footage in response, saying it was not involved in the underlying Oregon business dispute and had acted only to enforce Utah law within its jurisdiction.

Lawsuit

Claims

On May 27, 2026, Bricks & Minifigs and several affiliated people and entities sued Schneider, Mansell, and others in the Fourth Judicial District Court in Utah County, Utah. The plaintiffs were BAM Franchising, Inc., executives Ammon McNeff and Matthew McNeff, store operators Josh Johnson and Brandon Best, and Baker Bricks LLC; the defendants were Schneider, his company Reckless Ben LLC, Mansell, Victor Nguyen, and unnamed others. The verified complaint raises 13 causes of action, including defamation per se, defamation, a Utah racketeering claim, civil stalking, trespass, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and it asks the court to declare that the company lawfully acquired the store's assets and is not bound by the consignment agreement. It seeks more than $300,000 in damages, attorneys' fees, and an injunction. A judge granted a temporary restraining order on May 28, 2026.

Related litigation

The former franchisees, the Law-Gormans, have said they retained counsel and are pursuing their own lawsuit against BAM Franchising for breach of contract, conversion, defamation, and civil conspiracy, contending that corporate never provided the post-termination store inventory their franchise agreement required.

Consumer and community response

Schneider raised money for the Mansell family through a public fundraiser. After Bricks & Minifigs asked Patreon to remove Schneider's page, Patreon chief executive Jack Conte posted a video refusing the request and saying the company would keep the page online.

The dispute also drew commentary on the legal exposure all sides created for themselves. Writing for Techdirt, Mike Masnick argued that the parties should have involved lawyers far earlier, citing attorney Leonard French's point that a consignor in Mansell's position can protect consigned goods by filing a UCC-1 financing statement. Bricks & Minifigs maintains that responsibility for the consignment lies with the former independent franchisee, not the franchisor.

See also

• DCS sues small YouTuber for accurate review

External links

• Collection of court filings and videos involving the case