By Ben Soltau
So, it all started in late 2023 with Bryan Mansell and his father Eric Mansell. Eric had amassed a Star Wars Lego collection worth an estimated $US200,000 ($A280,000).
As Eric was getting old and needed money to support his healthcare, the two decided to sell the Lego collection through a company known as Bricks & Minifigs, which buys and sells Lego.
They made an agreement with the B&M store in Salem, Oregon. Shortly after the consignment agreement was made, the owners of the franchise announced they were planning to leave the country and sell their store.
As soon as this happened, the corporate office of B&M stepped in to push out the original owners and a new guy, based in American Fork, Utah, became the owner.
They then refused to give Bryan any of the money from his Lego or to return the Lego, citing that the consignment was between them and the previous owners. After over a year of conflict between Bryan and B&M, in early 2025 Bryan got in contact with a YouTuber known as Reckless Ben.
Reckless Ben set out to help Bryan retrieve the Lego by confronting the Salem store directly using all the means he could think of. Eventually he was banned from the store.
After months of all sorts of gimmicks, like setting up a raffle in front of the store, Reckless Ben eventually realised he needed to resort to legal means. However, the store owners threatened to drag out the legal process and make it hell for them. All his lawyers also advised against it.
He tried to bait B&M into suing so he could defend cheaply but they didn’t bite.
Eventually, in late January of 2026, he resorted to small claims court, which was much cheaper that suing. It worked and he won the claim by default as B&M didn’t show. However, when he arrived at the store to deliver the papers and retrieve the Lego, it had shut down.
At this point, there was nothing Ben could do so he put up a gigantic sign above the closed store, saying: “PERMANENTLY CLOSED. WE STOLE A FAMILY’S LIFE SAVINGS. THEY SUED. WE LOST.”
Now, from this point on, things start to ramp up. Reckless Ben and his team arrived in American Fork to confront Josh Johnson, one of the franchisees of the Salem store along with Brandon Best. He ignored them despite endless attempts to get him to solve the situation amicably, which they needed for the small claims court.
At this point, the American Fork police department got involved. The cops seemed very interested in helping Josh against Ben and his team. When Ben legally waited outside of Josh’s house with the legal papers, the police arrived and asked him what he was doing and whether or not the papers are real. They even called up the small claims court.
Reckless Ben tried to give the papers to Johnson who turned them down and the police just let him.
Later, Reckless Ben and his friend were stopped by the police who proceeded to call him by name and search his car for heroin due to an anonymous report, which is not grounds for a car search btw.
They spent three hours searching and found nothing. They also stopped him on another occasion for not making a full stop at a stop sign, even though dash cam video emerged of them making a full stop.
Eventually, the American Fork police raided Reckless Ben’s place saying that he stole the Lego and arrested him and his crew, dislocating Ben’s arm in the process.
They interrogated Ben, who naively told the cops everything without a lawyer present, including the fact that they started a GoFundMe for Bryan and his family, which the cops used as reason to keep him imprisoned for a month.
Luckily, a judge turned down the order and Ben was released on bail. However, the American Fork police department issued a warrant for Reckless Ben’s arrest shortly after, which brings us to today – Ben has fled the country and is hiding out in Mexico.
Recently the co-founder and CEO of Patreon (which is a website where you can fund content creators), released a video claiming that B&M tried to take down Reckless Ben’s Patreon account to strangle his source of livelihood.
Interestingly, throughout all of this lies a connection between Josh Johnson, the B&M CEO Ammon McNeff (who btw has a twirl-able moustache like a villain), and most of the American Fork Police Department being members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, many of whom also attended the same Mormon school and are a part of the same Mormon congregation.
All this controversy has tanked B&M’s reputation. The multi-national company raking in $US95 million a year has collapsed over 200 grand. And Bryan still has not got his Lego, most of which have probably already been sold.
Featured image: YouTuber Reckless Ben was arrested in Utah over a rare Lego collection. Photo: YouTube
