We need to talk about Bricks and Minifigs...

追加: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]So, by now I'm sure you have seen this video. And if you haven't seen it for some reason, then you've probably seen this picture. Both of these have been circulating the internet for the last few days with the video being one of YouTube's most hyped videos at this point in time. And so, there's a lot going on and Brixton Minigs is behind it all. So, in today's video, we're going to jump right in. I want to share with you guys what bricks and mini figs actually is because a lot of people have been getting it confused. I want to share with you guys what exactly is going on in this situation and where that leaves Bricks and Mini Figs currently and where they can go from here. And I also want to share your guys's opinions in this video as well because I asked you guys on Instagram your thoughts and not just the people that follow me on Instagram, but a ton of people have been having thoughts on this entire situation. So, I'm going to be going through and breaking down some of those as well. and we'll also go through the overall consensus of where this leaves the LEGO community, bricks and mini figs, and also the people that are actually involved. So, I want to start with the bricks and mini figs business model. And there will be timestamps in this video. So, if you are interested in skipping around or rewinding, the timestamps will be down in the description for you to check out, so you can skip around as needed. But Bricks and Miniigs is a franchise. A franchise is a local independent investor who operates a specific branch of the business. And they deal with pretty much everything from payroll to daily management and everything in between. While being an independent store, they pay a fee in order to be able to use the business name, the trademarks, as well as the business model of the parent company, which in this case is Bricks and Minig. So instead of having a zillion random shops out there that are Chris Bricks Incorporated or any other random name, they get to use the more common name of Bricks and Minigs. That way people will recognize it and be more likely to walk in your store. Bricks and Minigs is essentially the parent company, also known as the franchiser. And what that means is that this Bricks and Minifigs, which has been the center of attention the last week or so, is completely separate from all of the other locations. Every single location is independently owned. And you'll probably be familiar with this if you've gone into two separate Bricks and Mini Figs locations and you've bought an item from each of them. You'll know that your rewards points from one store do not carry over to the other. All of them are completely independent and they share nothing except for their name, the trademarks, as well as the business model. Now, for the actual business model of Bricks and Minifigs, their catchphrase sums it up pretty well. They buy, sell, and trade Lego. They are all authorized retailers, so you can buy current LEGO sets on their shelves. And they also have a section, which is the majority of the store, for used and retired Legos. So, they have sealed sets, they have used and complete sets that are fully built. They have used and incomplete sets that are either in bags or displayed on a shelf either without figures or other pieces that are missing. And they also sell individual figures. And they also have bulk tables in the middle of the room. Think kind of like a pick a brick wall, but don't expect to find any large quantities of pieces in there. Instead, it is pretty much just a bunch of sets that got disassembled. Now, the selling and trading part of the business model is a little bit more interesting. Customers can walk in with stuff that they don't want anymore, whether that's a complete set or just a couple of minifigs, and they can sell it back to break some minifig so that they can sell it to someone else. And this is pretty much like a GameStop type of situation where you go in and you sell it to them and they'll give you cash or store credit.

[00:03:26]They usually give you more store credit than they would if they were just to give you cash. And that's an incentive to get you to walk around the store and buy something else. So that's pretty much the bricks and mini figs business model. It's mostly a 10,000 ft perspective, but that's hopefully to give you guys a better idea in case you weren't familiar. And it also goes to show that each bricks and minifigs location is entirely different. and keep that in mind as we go throughout this video. But now for the actual situation that has been going on. Basically, this one YouTuber, Reckless Ben, has been documenting this entire thing. And if you haven't seen that video yet, I'll put it in the top right corner of this video, as well as linking it at the end of this video. I highly recommend that you go and watch it because it is extremely interesting and there is a lot going on and there are a lot of other videos stemming from that as well. I highly recommend you watch that video.

[00:04:15]But basically, I have a couple of notes on my tablet here just to go through and give you guys a gist of that video because it is pretty long. So, if you don't want to watch it, basically what happened is this guy Brian and his father have an extensive Lego collection that they have been collecting for well over a decade, if not even longer than that. And it is worth approximately $200,000. And the goal was to always sell that collection in order to pay for the father's grandchildren to go to college. And so they wanted to get rid of the collection and they didn't want to have to deal with selling hundreds and hundreds of sets and thousands of mini figs. So they brought it to their local bricks and minigs out in Oregon and they got a deal with the store owner in order to sell everything on consignment. Consignment basically means that in this case Brian still retains full ownership of the sets but Bricks and Miniigs is doing all the leg work in order to sell them. So that means once each set gets sold, Bricks and Mini Figs gives the money to Brian for what the set was worth minus the percentage that Bricks and Minigs takes out for actually doing all the work. And from what I found online doing a little bit of research on this whole situation, Brian is supposed to get 65% of the money. So if his collection was worth exactly $200,000, he would be getting $130,000 total once the entire collection has been sold. Now, in November 2024, after doing this for about a year at this point, there have been a couple of different dates that have floated around when this consignment deal started, but it did start sometime in 2023. And at the end of 2024 in November, the original store owner, whose name is Crystal, has gone and decided that she wants to sell the store. Her and her husband are leaving the area and they want to sell the store cuz they've put a lot of time and money and effort into it and they want to recoup some of that cost. And so they contacted corporate in order to see if there was a potential buyer. And the bricks and minifig corporate did find a potential buyer and sent them out to the location. But when that potential investor got there, the corporate and that new person actually seized the store, leaving Crystal and the husband with nothing. And so they pretty much got nothing. They did get some of the original recordings, which I'm going to try and limit what I post in this video of certain clips from other videos because I don't know how the whole copyright thing is going to work out and also with privacy and stuff like that. So, if you're interested in seeing all these clips firsthand, then go and check out Reckless Ben's video.

[00:06:42]But it is really interesting stuff and really unfortunate that the original store manager basically got kicked out and Bricks and Miniig corporate did take over the store and eventually handed it off to two other people who are also in cahoots with the corporate entity. The video from Reckless Ben really dives into this, but the corporate entity as well as the individual Storm Oregon are both playing past the potato and so they are telling them at corporate to go to the individual franchise because corporate can't control what the franchise does. But on the other side of the coin, when they go to the franchise store, they say, "Go talk to corporate.

[00:07:15]That's not our problem." So, they're sending Ben and his crew in circles, ultimately leading to no success in getting that Lego back, or at least the monetary compensation for what that collection is worth. Reckless Ben went through a number of different methods to try and get this Lego collection back to change it from a civil case, which the police won't touch, to a criminal case, which means that the police would have to investigate it. They went through a lottery along with a multitude of other ways to try and do this and they eventually went through small claims court and they actually won the case.

[00:07:46]Since Bricks and Min figs neglected to show up to the court date, they actually won in small claims course by default and they were going to go back to the store to collect their payment, but the store actually closed, which is where this sign came from. And so instead of paying, they just opted to close the store to try and get out of it. But now that picture has been going extremely viral on the internet and plenty of people online are talking about it now, which is really putting Bricks and Mini figs in a bad light. That's essentially the 10,000 foot perspective of it all.

[00:08:17]But how did it get this far? Had Bricks and Mini Figs, either the franchise store or corporate agree to just give the collection back or even just the monetary value of what the collection was worth, they could have avoided this entire scenario. but instead they tried to be scummy about it and keep the collection for themselves and now it has turned into a lot of negativity online and even people outside of the LEGO niche are commenting on this. You have channels with millions of followers showcasing how these bricks and mini figs people tried to go through certain loopholes in order to avoid paying out what was duly owed. And you have other creators that are familiar with the law who have gone through and assessed this situation to see what is actually going on here. And I have watched some of those videos. This is one of those videos that I watched and I don't personally know this creator, but he seems to know what he's talking about.

[00:09:08]He has plenty of videos talking about the law and he seems to know what he's talking about and all of the articles and sub articles and subsections and all of that. So, I would also recommend his video as well. It is very insightful into what exactly is going on here.

[00:09:23]While there is technically a loophole in that the previous owner of the store signed the contract and the new ones did not, the owners did say on camera that they will be taking on the consignment the day that they seized the store. So in addition to all the documents and other evidence, this is sure enough proof that they will be taking on the consignment and also assumingly honoring that initial agreement just for them to turn their backs on Brian and his family. So unfortunately that leaves them in this predicament. But where does that leave Bricks and Mini Fakes? While this one store has been the center of attention, pretty much all the other stores which are independent, they have been getting a lot of the heat as well.

[00:10:05]And so while they have no affiliation with this one store other than the name, they have been getting a lot of heat online and I'm assuming in person as well, despite the fact that most of the people that run each Bricks and Mini Figs location, separate from this one in question, I'm assuming are good people who are trying to make a living who are small business owners and have mouths to feed for their families. And so Bricks and Minigs did put out a statement addressing this, but they were very vague about it. And they also neglected to mention that they would be giving back Brian's collection. And so this statement that Bricks and Miniigs has put online essentially just deflected the blame and they were very vague about everything that they said. And unfortunately they didn't try to resolve the conflict. They just took a very neutral stance on the whole situation and tried to say that some things are just rumors when in fact there is a plethora of evidence out there both from Reckless Ben as well as from the original store owner and Brian. They each have their own evidence, their own security camera footage, their own documents, contracts, photo evidence, and other video evidence as well. And so unfortunately, Bricks and Minifigs doesn't seem like they're really caring about this process at all and they're trying to drag it out as long as possible and delay the inevitable consequences here. Honestly, a huge shout out to Reckless Ben for not only helping Brian out with this entire situation, but really being thorough about this. And if you've watched that video, the part one, at least he goes through four or five different ways to try and get the Lego back from the bricks and minifigs to give it to Brian.

[00:11:45]He tries a multitude of different ways, all of which are legal and they are most of them at least are legally sound from that one law video that I watched and the other aspects of it as well, including the part two video and eventually that part three video as well. He is seriously invested in this and I highly recommend you check his channel out for all of the other content because he did also react to the original Bricks and Minifig statement that I was just talking about. The statement on Bricks and Minig's website is basically just a bunch of corporate jargon and it's super vague and it's trying to deflect the blame and make other people look like the bad guys when in reality Bricks and Minigs is the true villain in this story here. And so this statement unfortunately doesn't clear the air with anything. They're just trying to deflect the blame and make it look like they're not the bad guy. So there's nothing of real value in this other than the fact that they did acknowledge the video. And so other than that, there really isn't any value to it. There are other videos based on that statement now. So it's not just everyone reacting or commenting on the original video. They are now also talking about the part two which at the time of recording this video is still locked behind that Patreon. So you have to pay to watch the video and also the now response to the statement. All of these are on Reckless Ben's channel and also the part two is on his Patreon. So this is really unfortunate for the whole situation here. The fact that they are not taking ownership of this. there is clear, undeniable evidence that they have the Lego and they're not giving it back. And so, unfortunately, this statement that they put out really doesn't help in any way, shape, or form.

[00:13:32]So, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any update in that regard. Reckless Ben does have a part two and potentially a part three to this episode as well.

[00:13:41]And while that part two is locked behind a payw wall, as I understand it, that part two will become public once the part three goes on his Patreon. So then it'll kind of just funnel that way. And so part two is pretty much more of the same. He tries different things in order to get them to give the collection back and he actually ends up getting arrested. And so the police department is seemingly in on this as well. I don't have the specifics of that. Again, if you are interested in learning all of this for yourself and getting a deeper dive in everything as opposed to a 10,000 foot perspective from a LEGO fan, go check out the video for yourself. But there is also a Reddit thread talking about this and the original store owner is actually in that Reddit thread responding to questions that have come up since this whole thing has started.

[00:14:28]And basically she's talking about the consignment part of being a Bricks and Miniigs owner and also all of the other aspects of this as well and how she is suing Bricks and Minigs for not being compensated in selling the store since they seized it when she had asked them to find a potential buyer. And so unfortunately she is also now in this mix as well. Now this whole situation got me pretty curious. So I decided to look up Bricks and Mini Figs franchise contracts and they are actually seemingly available for free on the internet for you to read. And I decided to skim through part of one. They are 267 pages at least the one that I found from 2022. And so I obviously did not read the entire thing. I don't have the time for that. But I did control F and try and find the consignment part of the contract because now Bricks and Mini Figs is claiming that consignment is not allowed in their business models. And so I figured I would go through and check the contract to see if it's in there.

[00:15:30]And I controlled F and it was not there.

[00:15:33]So the part of that contract that they're claiming is there where you're not allowed to sell things on consignment is completely false. So, I'm in the middle of editing this video right now, and I wanted to take a quick break to show you guys this because I just found this video that got uploaded a few hours ago. And basically, this is from the original store manager, and she showed the original contract that she signed years ago when she first opened up the Bricks and Minifigs or first started to run the store. And the contract does explicitly state that there is a consignment part of the contract and that it is allowed. And so I did miss that in the original video when I was doing my research for it and while filming. So I just wanted to clarify that that consignment was allowed at least at the time of when they signed the contract and corporate was aware of that. I'm sure going forward if Bricks and Minifig survives this entire situation then they will be sure to change that in the process going forward and removing the consignment feature from their business model. Now, going forward, Bricks and Minifigs doesn't really have that many options.

[00:16:41]Reckless Ben has a second YouTube channel, and he posted a video on there, mostly a podcast style, talking about that first video and the whole situation. And he also said that he wants to sue Bricks and Mini Figs and get them out of business entirely. I don't know how successful he's going to be in that. Only time will tell, but Bricks and Minigs is not really looking good. They have reckless been against him and he has done a lot within the last week. Obviously, all of the content of his video has been over the course of a number of months, but all of that accumulated into one 90minute video along with future videos coming out and reaction videos to that and all of those other kinds of media. This has really put a lot of pressure on Bricks and Mini Figs. And so, going forward, they really only have a couple of options. They can close down entirely, which we can talk about in just a second, or they can give the collection back or face backlash and try and survive but slowly die out over the next couple of years. And unfortunately, that is going to negatively affect all the individual franchises who own Bricks and Miniigs locations across the country. Now, the idea of bricks and mini figs closing is really interesting because in theory, I don't know how the law works and all of the nuances of opening and closing a business, but if a franchisee were to close a store and close a bricks and minifigs location and then reopen the store under a different name that is no longer affiliated with Bricks and Minigs, it's just a random name that they decide to put up like essentially a physical bricklink store, then in theory, if they are allowed to do such thing without jumping through a million different hopes, then I'm assuming a lot of franchises would be interested in doing something like that to one, no longer be affiliated with Bricks and Mini Figs, and two, get away from all the negative attention that is surrounding this situation. I don't know how long that process would take in deciding to close the store and then reopen it under a new name and no longer being a franchise, but that is definitely something to consider. But clearly the business model and the whole concept of having physical locations that are essentially brickling stores where you can buy new and used sets, both sealed as well as built. You can buy individual figures, you can buy individual pieces along with a multitude of other things. There is clearly a market for that. Bricks and Mini Fakes has over 300 physical locations in the United States. And so there is clearly some type of demand for this. And so in theory, it would be feasible for some of the franchises to close their Bricks and Miniigs location and then just reopen under a new name which is no longer affiliated with Bricks and Minigs. That is one idea that I have thought of, but ultimately I don't know if that's feasible or not considering all of their products would essentially be the same and they'd also probably have to apply for a license in order to sell current Lego sets that would be on store shelves. I also don't think that this situation is going to die down anytime soon. Obviously, the attention on it right now is probably going to be at an all-time high within the past week and within the next week or two. But it looks like the court date is going to be in June for a lot of this. So I'm assuming the attention is going to be high around then as well. But this is definitely going to be an ongoing issue because there's no way that this just gets resolved overnight. And even if it does, there's going to be a lot of negative stigma around Bricks and Minifigs and all of the locations despite the fact that they are all separate. So being able to separate from the corporate entity and the CEO and also the single franchise that has been doing a lot of this evil stuff is really important and important to differentiate that most of these stores are genuinely good people. While the name might be tarnished, the actual people in the stores is very important. And so now I want to talk about all of your opinions regarding the bricks and mini figs situation. I asked you guys on my Instagram story what your thoughts on it were. I've talked to a number of other people and I have also gone through and read a bunch of comments on other posts and other videos as well. So basically a lot of you are saying the same thing and that you're going to be boycotting Bricks and Minifigs going forward and I can totally understand that. I think that's a valid response to this entire situation. But it is important to remember that these franchises are independent and when you don't shop at them and you choose to avoid them and boycott them, that is mainly hurting the individual Bricks and Mini Figs franchise as opposed to the corporate.

[00:21:23]You are still supporting that corporate entity if you do choose to shop at Bricks and Miniigs. But in that contract, I saw that the franchises must agree to ongoing royalties of 6% and an advertising or brand fund fee of 4% of the gross sales. So, it is a rather small percentage surprisingly, but it is still a percentage nonetheless. So, a lot of you have been saying that you will be boycotting Bricks and Minifigs going forward and you hope that they close. And a lot of this isn't new feelings either. A lot of people I've been seeing online have been saying that they've been feeling this way for a while because the business practices much like a GameStop are rather shady and kind of scummy as well. having the business model try to buy something from a consumer for as little money as possible just to flip it and immediately sell it for as high as possible is probably not the best business practice, but it is probably one of the easier ways in order to get older and retired sets and figures. So, I can understand why the idea or the concept behind the bricks and mini figs would do that. But ultimately, this is a really unfortunate situation. Bricks and Minifigs is not looking good at this point in time. And so, as someone who has been to a Bricks and Minifigs location before, I have bought a couple of different things from them. I've bought sealed sets along with used sets and even individual figures as well as parts from the bulk table as well. This is from a while ago. This is not from the one in Oregon. This was a different location. But my personal experiences have been drastically different than this entire situation.

[00:23:02]Most of my experiences with bricks and mini figs have been pretty good. I have gone in and had nice rapport with the people that work there and have nice conversations with them. I don't live near one. It is about an hour to an hour and a half to the one that is closest to me. And so I don't go very often. That bag that I just showed you is from a couple of months ago. And the previous time that I went before that was probably over a year ago. So I don't go very often. But it is interesting at least to check out what they have in that location. And I do check out other locations or I have checked out other locations if I'm on vacation or if my parents are traveling. I'll have them stop in somewhere to see if they have anything good. But going forward, being able to support the franchises without supporting the corporate entity would be ideal. But it's not really possible unless it is feasible like I talked about earlier to close the store, disassociate with bricks and minfigs and then open under a new name. If you are someone who is familiar with the law and all the nuances of that, drop a comment down below to let me know if that's something that's actually feasible. And also let me know your comments on this whole situation. The overall consensus of this between myself, you guys, and pretty much every other post and video that I've seen out there is really universal. It's that Bricks and Mini Figs is a shady company. And unfortunately, the CEO, the CEO of the corporate and pretty much all of the franchises, is not a good person. the individuals who were running the Salem, Oregon store after the original store owner, Crystal, was forcibly removed from the store. They are also shady people. And pretty much everyone involved is at a loss at this point. And so, it's really not a good look for Bricks and Minigs. And while I would like to see the idea of that kind of Lego store succeed, the way that it is right now, Bricks and Minigs is just not in a good spot. So hopefully we get more independent LEGO stores going forward where the owners are true fans of LEGO and they're not trying to steal.

[00:25:12]Overall, those are my thoughts on the matter. This is my entire video regarding it. I might make a part two if there are other updates about this, like that court date in June and also if Reckless Ben releases that part three eventually. And so let me know what you guys think of this down in the comments below. I would be very curious to hear your thoughts on the matter. So far, what I've seen, everyone has pretty much been within the same thought, which is that Bricks and Minigs is a bad business. And so whether this is your first time hearing about Bricks and Minigs or you have been to one, you've worked at one or anything like that, Bricks and Minifigs is now all over the news. And it is not only in the LEGO community, but in a ton of other communities as well. And a lot of people are interested in this. And unfortunately, it's because a lot of problems have been created due to bricks and mini figs and their greed, or more specifically the CEO and others from corporate along with those at the Salem, Oregon store after the original manager was removed. While what's been happening to Brian and Crystal and Ben is completely inexcusable, the other stores that are not from Salem, Oregon, all the other Bricks and Mini Figs locations are completely independent franchises. They are their own individual locations owned by small business owners and local families. So, please treat them with respect if you're going to boycott Bricks and Mini Figs going forward. That is completely valid. That is totally fine. But please treat all these other franchises with respect and please don't go bashing them on social media or going to them in person. If you're going to boycott them, please do so respectfully.

[00:26:46]But with that, thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you found some value in this video. If you found it informative or at the very least entertaining, make sure to like the video as well as drop a comment down below to let me know what you think of this whole situation and also how you think Bricks and Minifigs is going to eventually resolve this. Make sure you subscribe for more as well as turn on the bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads like a potential part two to this video. And thank you guys again for watching and I can't wait to see you next time. Bye for now.