Bricks & Minifigs investigation reveals 'real' cost of missing Star Wars LEGO as Reckless Ben lawsuit continues
The Bricks & Minifigs saga rolls on, with numerous voices from various sides trying to tell their side of the story. At the center of the scandal is Bricks & Minifigs, an American retailer that specializes in the buying, selling, and trading of new, used, and retired LEGO products.
The company was unfavorably dragged into the spotlight after an investigation from YouTuber Ben "Reckless Ben" Schneider, who accused a Keizer, Oregon, outlet of the company of withholding a series of rare Star Wars sets that belonged to the father of Bryan Mansell.
The Reckless Ben saga explained
A complicated timeline explains how Mansell consigned a collection of rare Star Wars LEGO to former franchise owner Chrystal Law-Gorman. Bricks & Minifigs is adamant that consignments were banned under franchise rules, telling UNILADTech that the Mansell dispute is an "isolated and unfortunate private civil dispute related to a former franchisee, who allegedly went rogue and broke company protocols."
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As the situation escalated and a resolution failed to be reached, Schneider entered the picture and posted a series of investigative videos outlining serious allegations against the company, as well as his arrest at the hands of the American Fork Police Department, Bricks & Minifigs' response, and then went quiet after BAM threatened legal action.
Although reiterating that Bricks & Minifigs isn't involved in any of the pending criminal proceedings, it says the civil RICO case maintains that Schneider and others were "coordinated as an enterprise to damage the company’s brand and harass, threaten and disrupt its corporate and franchise employees and business operations."
BAM said it was unable to comment further on the cases due to ongoing litigation, but speaking to UNILADTech, Bricks & Minifigs CEO Ammon McNeff wanted to reveal the company’s own findings and dismiss the idea that the reported $200,000 of LEGO was worth anywhere near that value.
The 'real' cost of Mansell's missing LEGO sets
In the latest update, BAM explained its own investigation into the missing LEGO sets and what it claims is the 'real value of the Mansell collection. As the Reckless Ben investigation grabbed international attention, famous faces from the world of YouTube and beyond waded into the situation. This included investigative journalist Cofeeezilla, who said that several stories aren't adding up, and neither are the numbers.
BAM has identified point-of-sale data, suggesting that around $61,000 worth of Mansell's LEGO was sold before November 14, 2014. It believes he only received around $15,000 of this, although the company is still investigating discrepancies.
According to McNeff, the company has identified documentation that estimates the highest retail value of the Mansell collection is between $95,000 and $100,000. BAM says this is consistent with Bryan Mansell's public statements in an April 2025 interview with Collecting Weekly podcast, as well as the roughly $80,000 in products or cash he's said to have sought when he visited the store in November 2024.
McNeff reiterated: "The amount, if any, that remains unaccounted for is still being investigated."
Elsewhere, BAM maintains that when new franchisees Brandon Best and Josh Johnson took over the store, there was only a small number of Star Wars products discovered inside, with an at-cost value of between $2,000 and $5,000. This is where things get even more complicated, with continued questions about sets potentially being moved offsite.
Whatever the true cost of Mansell sets and what (if anything) is still owed, Bricks & Minifigs states that this is an "isolated dispute involving a single franchised location should be viewed as negatively reflecting on the integrity of the company or its more than 300 other independent and unrelated franchisees."