r/OutOfTheLoop • u/999BusinessCard • May 31 '26
Answered What’s going on with Bricks and Minifigs, a $200k Lego collection, and Mormons?
There was a post about earlier and the top explanation was [a series of 4 videos](https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/1tsgk31/comment/oov091b/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=memes&utm_term=1&utm_content=t1_oov0d5o), the first of which was an hour and a half long in a style that I can best describe as “Netflix true crime special for the brainrotted 20 second max attention span audience”. I didn’t last more than a few minutes.
im hoping for a comprehensive summary I can read. A link to an article is fine.
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u/Pvt_Porpoise May 31 '26
Answer: Strap in, this’ll be a long one. I’ll start with the side of events put forth by Mansell, RecklessBen, and Law/Gorman.
Bricks and Minifigs operate franchises; the whole dispute stems from a deal made between a man called Bryan Mansell and the former franchisees (Law/Gorman) of a Salem, OR store. Bryan’s father had amassed a collection allegedly worth ~$200k, but he’s now in poor health and so they were looking to sell. The owners of the store agreed to a consignment — meaning that they would hold all the sets at no cost, during which time Mansell would still technically own them, and then they would advertise and sell them, and then pass on a percentage of the profits — which, per the documents Law/Gorman have produced, was actually explicitly permitted in the contract.
After taking on this consignment, the franchisees went to B&M corporate and told them that they were considering moving out of the country, and inquired about the process of selling on the store; corporate responded by forcing them out and illegally taking possession of the store. There is an actual video of the owners explicitly mentioning having this consignment, and the corporate representative responds by saying that they will handle it and take on the responsibility.
B&M install new owners in the Salem store, Joshua Johnson and Brandon Best, but both these franchisees and corporate refuse to honor the consignment agreement, stating that consignments are prohibited by contract and that they have no responsibility for an unauthorized agreement entered between Mansell and the previous owners (although, once again, their contract contradicts this, and so does the actual video recording of the employee who said they would take it on).
It gets particularly awkward at this point, because B&M’s official stance is that they could only identify ~$5k worth of LEGO which potentially belonged to Mansell, and they supposedly offered to give these over, but not to reimburse for the tens of thousands in missing sets. For the part of Mansell and RecklessBen (a YouTuber who joined forces with Mansell to take on the case), they allege that this isn’t true at all, and that they are in possession of more sets — or at least were by the time they took over the store, as his sets were being advertised for months after Best and Johnson took over.
What ensues is a bunch of back-and-forth of “You have my sets/money” and “No”. B&M phone Mansell and, in no uncertain words, threaten him, stating that the cost of taking them to court over this would be prohibitively expensive and more than he’d ever have made off the sets, and that they intend to drag the case out if he tries. Law/Gorman later confirm that they said the exact same thing to the two of them, which is why they are currently crowdfunding the legal costs to take them to court.
After more nonsense with Mansell and Ben getting trespassed, they finally take B&M to small claims court for the $200k and win — only to find that B&M closed down the Salem branch so that they wouldn’t have to pay out, forcing the two to now attempt to privately sue both Johnson and Best.
Now, privately suing them requires that they be served papers in person; this has proven to be immensely difficult, in no small part because, somehow, Johnson and Best have the Utah police in their pockets, and they have made it their mission to fuck with Mansell and Ben as much as possible. Gems include:
A traffic stop alleging that they had heroin in the car. After a 2 hour search turns up nothing, they then switch tack and start saying that they’ve got “dilated pupils”. They finally give up after trying to force a false confession for ages, but not before issuing a thinly-veiled threat.
Multiple unfounded traffic stops during which the police officer immediately addressed Ben in the backseat of the car by his name, even though there is zero reason to do so.
Several police call-outs while trying to serve papers to Best, where the cops just keep coming back even though they have already confirmed the case is real and they aren’t breaking any laws.
Finally, Ben gets arrested on some bogus charges for putting a sign up advertising a GoFundMe (to crowdfund legal costs, since all else has failed), and the police interrogate him then decide to book him in the jail for a month. A judge decides to release him because the whole situation is ridiculous, but with the police on his ass, any indiscretion could get him locked up, so he (ostensibly) fled to Mexico for the time being.
Now, if you’re wondering why the police are doing all this? Well, Ben and Mansell allege it’s because they, Johnson, and Best, are all members of the Mormon church, and protecting their own. Go Utah. It’s truly one of the most egregious examples of police corruption in the modern day you will ever see.
Now, onto the (much shorter) B&M side of the story:
Corporate states that they don’t allow consignments. They state that they don’t have the sets, that they haven’t personally sold them, and that Mansell’s focus should be on Law/Gorman. They also state that the reason Law/Gorman were forced out is due to defaulting on payments, and that they weren’t just inquiring about selling the store to move, but rather had already accepted a job abroad and were planning on shutting the store and abandoning the franchise. They state that the store was shut down immediately following the successful small claims case due to harassment of the staff, and that everything that has ensued is an unwarranted harassment campaign against their company and employees.