The saga began in 2023 when Ed Mansell’s son, Bryan, approached Chrystal Law, the franchise owner of a Bricks & Minifigs shop in Salem, Oregon, to sell the elder Mansell’s rare Star Wars Lego collection on consignment. Under a consignment agreement, Ed Mansell remained the legal owner of the collection until a buyer was found. Law’s store advertised the acquisition on social media as “one of the largest, most valuable privately held collections of Star Wars Lego in the world,” according to the BBC.
Over the following year, the store sold at least $52,000 worth of the Lego, according to the parent company of Bricks & Minifigs. But in late 2024, the company ousted Law over an unpaid debt and sold her franchise to a new owner. Mansell told media outlets that he learned of the sale when he visited the store in person after his monthly cheques stopped coming. The new owners said they had no knowledge of his collection or the consignment agreement. Mansell now believes the remaining collection was stolen and has filed a report with local police.
The dispute between Law, Mansell, and Bricks & Minifigs continued for over a year with no resolution, with all parties pointing blame at each other. In March, YouTuber Ben Schneider, who goes by the name Reckless Ben and has 1.4 million subscribers, became involved after Mansell reached out to him for help, according to Schneider.
Schneider’s campaign against Bricks & Minifigs and the franchise’s new owners included creating a website called “We Steal from Old People” emblazoned with the Bricks & Minifigs logo. He posted videos showing how he put up a sign accusing the store’s owners of stealing across from the house of one of the new owners. He also traveled to Utah, where Bricks & Minifigs’ parent company is located.
On March 27, Schneider was charged by American Fork City police with stalking, targeted residential picketing, disorderly conduct, and criminal trespass in relation to some of these tactics.
The situation escalated further on May 21, when Schneider posted a feature-length video titled “I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of LEGO.” The video has garnered over 5 million views as of mid-June. Its popularity rallied the internet around Mansell and his father and sparked numerous conspiracy theories, with some accusing the American Fork City police of helping to cover up a crime.
On May 29, the police department issued a statement saying “our involvement in these cases was limited to fulfilling our legal obligations and enforcing Utah law.” The statement did little to assuage the rumors, with supporters interrupting a June city council meeting in American Fork City to accuse the police of misconduct.
Bricks & Minifigs said its stores are receiving threatening calls and emails. The Oregon shop at the heart of the dispute was later shut down by the company “due to a devastating social media campaign,” the company said, adding that it did not blame the new owners. The company said the closure was “because our staff — including local teenagers — faced severe real-world safety hazards, targeted in-person stalking, and explicit bomb threats driven by viral videos.”
In a lawsuit filed at the end of May, the parent company of Bricks & Minifigs said it took control of the store after Law racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. The company also claimed Law had violated corporate policy by agreeing to sell the collection on consignment. In the lawsuit, the company alleges the missing collection is worth $80,000, not the $200,000 claimed by Reckless Ben. The company alleges Schneider, Law, Mansell, and others conspired to lead a campaign of harassment and extortion against the company’s owners and the new franchisee who took over the Oregon shop.
Bricks & Minifigs has characterized the debate over the missing collection as a private dispute between Law and Mansell but said it has tried to help resolve the issue. “We are completely willing to sit down and figure out a fair, reality-based way to ensure this grandfather is made whole,” the company said in a statement on May 28.
Mansell did not respond to a BBC email seeking comment.
Law claims she does not have the Lego set and that it was part of the inventory in the store that was transferred to a new owner. She is suing Bricks & Minifigs, alleging the company improperly “seized control of the business and changed the locks that same evening.” The BBC attempted to contact Law through her publishing company; she did not respond to a BBC email.
In a statement to the Salem Business Journal, Mansell wrote that his father started collecting Lego to provide for his children and grandchildren. “Lego was a toy we shared when I was a kid, and he wanted to share it with his grandchildren,” said Mansell. “He chose Lego as an investment and began purchasing sets and figures to be kept new and in [a] box, so that one day they could be sold to help pay for the grandkid’s college education.”
A GoFundMe for the Mansell family has raised over $465,000 so far. The fundraiser says the money will be spent “to help Bryan and his father recover their collection or the value of it and cover legal costs.”
On June 10, a Utah judge issued a temporary injunction barring Schneider from posting about the dispute anymore. In an email to the BBC the next day, Schneider said that he had been legally barred from discussing the case. “I would love to speak, but unfortunately a bunch of lies have been said about me, and a court has ordered for me to stay silent,” he wrote.