When we broke down the Bricks & Minifigs LEGO dispute on June 4, the story read like it was winding down. Corporate had offered to make the consignor whole. It looked like it might quietly settle.
It didn't. It escalated.
Since that piece, Bricks & Minifigs corporate filed a RICO lawsuit, the Salem store closed permanently, and the YouTuber at the center hit a June 8 court date tied to his own criminal case. This is what changed, and almost none of it points toward resolution.
This remains an active legal dispute as of June 8, 2026. Every contested claim below is attributed. Allegations from all sides are unproven.
The RICO Suit, Filed May 30
On May 30, 2026, Bricks & Minifigs corporate filed a RICO lawsuit naming YouTuber "Reckless Ben," real name Benjamin Paul Schneider, consignor Bryan Mansell, and others.
The complaint alleges a coordinated campaign. Per the filing, that includes defamation, harassment, trespass, and extortion.
RICO is the racketeering statute, the kind of law built for organized crime. Reporting on the filing points to the Utah RICO statute. Pointing that at a YouTuber and a consignment customer is an aggressive escalation, not a wind-down. The allegations in the complaint are the company's claims, unproven, and a court has resolved none of them.
This tracks with the Utah litigation we noted on June 4, where corporate's filing already listed RICO and defamation among its causes. The throughline is the same. Corporate is treating its critics as defendants.
The Salem Store Is Gone
On June 4, the same day our explainer ran, Bricks & Minifigs announced the Salem, Oregon store would close for good.
The company framed it as a "mutual agreement to part ways" with franchise owners Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson.
A permanent closure is the clearest sign yet that this was never a contained one-store hiccup. The location at the center of the consignment fight is now shut. The dispute outlived the store.
Schneider's June 8 Court Date
Schneider was arrested March 11, 2026. According to the charging record, he faces misdemeanor counts including stalking, targeted residential picketing, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct.
A June 8, 2026 court date is tied to his case. Those are charges, not convictions, and a charge filed is not guilt established.
The criminal track and the civil RICO track are separate fights now running in parallel. Both center on the same LEGO. Neither is close to done.
Corporate Reached Out to Mansell
There is one move that points the other direction. In May 2026, BAM CEO Ammon McNeff reached out to Mansell directly.
Per the company, McNeff offered to review the point-of-sale and consignment data and to return or compensate for any unaccounted Star Wars LEGO.
That is the help-first instinct our last piece said should have come in week one. It is real, and it matters. It also sits next to a RICO suit that names Mansell as a defendant, which is a strange pairing to hand the same person.
Patreon's CEO Is Still In It
The platform fight didn't cool either. After Bricks & Minifigs sent a takedown notice targeting Reckless Ben, Patreon's CEO publicly backed the YouTuber.
A platform CEO siding with the person you are suing is the opposite of containment. It hands the story another news cycle and another audience.
This is the Streisand pattern we flagged on June 4 playing out again. Every move to shut the story down has widened it.
The Question That Still Hasn't Been Answered
Strip away the RICO filing, the closure, and the court dates, and the original collector question is exactly where it started.
Who actually owns the consigned bricks? That is unresolved.
A consignment keeps title with the consignor until each item sells. The fight has always been over the sets that were never sold and never returned, and over a messy franchise takeover sitting on top of them. Two lawsuits, a closed store, and a criminal case later, nobody has produced a clean answer or a clean number.
We assumed this was settling. It wasn't. The takeaway for any business running consignment-style sales hasn't moved since our last piece. Document the handoff cleanly from day one, because this is what an undocumented one turns into.
A Note on This Reporting
This article is news reporting on an active legal dispute. Every contested claim is attributed to its source: a court filing, a public company statement, or a named party's own account. The allegations described here, from every side, are unproven. Nothing in this piece is a finding of fact, a legal conclusion, or a verdict on any party. The matter is developing as of June 8, 2026, and details may change. If you are a party to this dispute and believe something here is inaccurate, contact us and we will review it.
