- A judge in Utah's federal court lifted a ban on Reckless Ben posting videos about Bricks and Minifigs, leading him to post an update.
- The videos, which have gone viral, revolve around a Star Wars Lego collection Schneider claims was stolen.
- The Utah-based company admits some money may have not been paid to the owner.
SALT LAKE CITY — Ben Schneider, known on YouTube as Reckless Ben, said his First Amendment rights have been reinstated after the Utah District Court signed a preliminary injunction replacing the 4th District Court temporary order, which required him to not post content related to Bricks and Minifigs. He posted the next update to paid subscribers on Tuesday.
Schneider went viral making videos with a goal to help Bryan Mansell get back Star Wars Legos he claimed were stolen following a consignment agreement with a since-closed Bricks and Minifigs franchise location in Oregon. Mansell entered a consignment agreement with the store's owners, but when the franchise was passed to someone else through corporate, he claimed the agreement wasn't maintained and the Legos weren't returned to him.
Utah-based Bricks and Minifigs has claimed they do not have the Legos and that the franchise owner stored them off-site or took them before passing the store over, and that it was not a smooth transition. In a recent statement, the company said records show $61,000 of the collection was sold before the franchise changed hands, but Mansell may have only received $15,000 in payments.
"The records suggest a discrepancy may exist between what was sold and paid to him, which the company is still investigating.
When the new owners, Brandon Best and Josh Johnson, took over the Salem (Oregon) location, they discovered in the store only a small number of Star Wars products, with an estimated at-cost value between $2,000 and $5,000," the statement said.
The company said it has committed to giving him those sets, whether or not they belonged to his collection, "as a courtesy," and has made the offer multiple times beginning in December 2024.
The new preliminary injunction, signed by U.S. District Judge David Barlow, allows anyone involved in the civil case filed by Bricks and Minifigs against Schneider and Mansell to participate in public commentary about the case, but like the previous temporary order it requires Schneider and those associated with him to stay at least 100 meters away from any Bricks and Minifigs locations or offices and not trespass, make threats, interfere with business or destroy their property.
A move to federal court
Schneider and Bricks and Minifigs asked 4th District Court Judge Tony Graf Jr. to sign the temporary order removing a restriction on him posting content about the issue, but the judge first asked for clarification on which people and franchises they would be ordered to stay away from and what would happen with videos that had been taken down.
A joint response emphasized that the language was "carefully designed" by both sides. It said franchise locations are easily identifiable and that they are not aware of any videos that have been taken down, as required by Graf's earlier order.
Before Graf considered the request again, Schneider's attorney, Scott Young, filed a motion to move the civil case to federal court. Although Barlow signed the preliminary injunction, he has not yet decided whether the case should be in the federal courts and he asked for information about where employees of Schneider's company, Reckless Ben, live.
Bricks and Minifigs said in a statement that moving the case to federal court "allows issues involving federal law to be properly addressed, but does not change the underlying dispute." It also said it does not change that the issue will be addressed through private mediation, and it hopes to resolve everything "in coming weeks."
"More than 300 uninvolved and independent franchisees have endured a damaging social media campaign based on alleged threats, harassment, interference and more, it and its franchisees remain committed to delivering family-friendly Lego experiences to customers and will continue to protect employees, families, customers and the communities they serve," the statement said.
In an earlier statement, Bricks and Minifigs CEO Ammon McNeff said the company understands why the story has become emotional for so many, but that it is an "isolated, unfortunate incident related to a single franchise which did get a consignment agreement approved.
"Our goal has never changed: help make this family whole, enhance operational processes, and build a company our franchisees and customers can be proud of for years to come," he said.
An anticipated part three
Tuesday's video from Schneider focuses on the Utah criminal charges against Schneider after McNeff called police when he went to the Bricks and Minifigs corporate offices in December. The YouTuber also attempted to get the Bricks and Minifigs owner charged with obstruction of justice, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
He claimed McNeff refused to provide documentation of what was in the Oregon franchise when it changed hands and lied to him and Mansell about what actually happened.
Although the charging documents are public, Schneider asks for more information about what he is accused of, calling it a "mystery crime." In a hearing audio played during the video, a prosecutor says they do not want to send him body camera footage because it would "be providing more fodder for him to create videos and profit on YouTube at the expense of our victim."
Schneider claims that while talking outside of the Bricks and Minifigs offices, McNeff asked them to leave, but then continued talking to them, and then when he asked a second time, they did leave. In calls to officers played in the update, however, McNeff says Schneider and those with him had threatened to burn down their offices and kill them and later that he asked them multiple times to leave and they would not leave.
A woman at the police department said in a call with McNeff, played in Schneider's video, that extortion, as McNeff claimed, did not fit the situation, but "at the end of the day, we do want to help you guys so you're not having to deal with this fool."
She said a different charge — aggravated commercial obstruction, a second-degree felony — would require him to remain at the location unlawfully. McNeff responded to that statement by saying he had asked multiple times for them to leave and he refused. Schneider was never charged with this crime, but was instead charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.
Schneider also reveals that someone in the McNeff family claimed a sniper associated with him had fired at their home, which was under construction, but in the video he played, officers said it appeared that a window had been broken due to a construction worker's actions.
"Bricks and Minifigs gets to just keep spreading their lies about me, and I just have to sit in silence, and there's nothing I can do to stop them," Schneider said.
The update also shows him attending a protest of the American Fork Police on June 20 near the American Fork Library in a poor "disguise." His videos accuse police of breaching his rights when they stopped him and those associated with him, arrested him twice and served a warrant on his Airbnb. Schneider's videos say he was in American Fork to serve an Oregon lawsuit on Johnson.
At the end of the video, which at least for now is only available to Patreon subscribers, Schneider invites Bricks and Minifigs to apologize by doing the chicken dance — claiming their actions haven't matched their words.
Criminal charges
In his two criminal cases, Schneider is now represented by Jeremy Delicino and Jon Williams, who have asked for more time to go over the case due to a federal court trial in St. George that they were both involved in last week.
At a hearing in the Provo Justice Court case on Monday, Schneider told the judge he would comply with the requirements to be fingerprinted, and his next hearing was scheduled for Sept. 15.
He was charged in April with disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor, and criminal trespass, a class B misdemeanor, after confronting McNeff at the Bricks and Minifigs corporate office on Dec. 10, 2025.
In the court audio of a previous hearing played in Tuesday's video, the prosecutor in his Provo case said he had not watched the footage of the incident Schneider had sent to him, but was relying on other information.
A hearing on July 1 in the 4th District Court case was continued to Aug. 12 because the attorneys were in another trial. He is charged there with stalking, a class A misdemeanor, and targeted residential picketing, a class B misdemeanor, related to actions near Johnson's American Fork home in March.
