Bricks and Minifigs NEEDS To Die: The LEGO Scandal’s Gross Miscarriage of Justice

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Hey there. Thanks for tuning in to Duck Bricks. I'm Chris. I am in Australia right now. I have found all of the new June sets early. And it is also my birthday, May 29th, today. And none of those are more important than the topic I am currently choosing to spend my time to sit down and talk about on video right now. And I hope that makes it very clear how serious, insane, and crazy this entire situation is. Now, obviously you can tell from the thumbnail and the title of this video what situation we are addressing. But for those not in the know, I want to present a few facts about an ongoing major scandal that is plaguing the entire LEGO community about at least in the US one of the biggest LEGO resell destinations of all time. a place that I've been going to for years and years and what people might be able to do to help the situation and what isn't helpful about the situation. And I really wanted to put out this video because first of all, my comments have been flooded asking me if I've seen the videos about this scandal, if I uh what my thoughts are, what my response is.

[00:01:10]And I honestly was not initially going to make a video because I wanted to make sure that I was contributing something to it and not just repeating what many of the other amazing videos that are already out there have said. Um, and so yesterday and over the course of today as I've been building these sets you see behind me, I sat down and I watched almost every single major piece of media I could find about this topic. And I watched original videos that were about the situation. I watched a legal breakdown uh in full legal terms of the case. I've linked everything I've watched in the description below, at least everything that I'm pulling information from, and I highly recommend that you check out those videos first if you want to get fully informed of the crazy situation we are about to dive into. Uh but without further ado, I do want to jump into the facts of the case and just start off with my thoughts.

[00:02:02]Now, the issue that has arisen over the past couple of weeks, but has been honestly ongoing for years, for the past couple of years now, that has only recently come to light, is that in the US, one of the biggest ways that you can buy, sell, and trade Lego is at stores called Bricks and Minifigures. Uh, so Bricks and Minigs have been operating for years. And I would know because I when I was a kid would travel to Oregon to go to the very first Bricks and Miniig store. And I was around when there was only one. Then I was around when there were two. And now there's over a hundred. And Bricks and Minigs is a pretty major and massive corporation.

[00:02:43]They are making millions upon millions of dollars. Online. You can actually see a couple of facts. I've seen a few different numbers out there, but their their revenue or at least profits could be up to $80 million in one year. I would imagine they're probably making way more than that. And the way that Bricks and Minigs makes money is by franchising out their brand. So, let's say that I am a mom and pop small business owner and I want to open a used Lego resale store in my hometown. Well, I could choose to open my own store with my own signage, my own marketing, my own brand, and see how that goes. Or I could go to Bricks and Minifigs and say, "Hey, I want to open a franchise of your store." Bricks and Minigs is a recognized brand. They up until this point were largely pretty trusted in terms of being a good place to go to be able to get used Lego. I've shoed there many times. I I I will admit I've worked with them many times because I had no idea of what was going on behind the scenes. And many, many LEGO influencers have. Almost all of my friends who are in the LEGO influencing space have been contacted by Bricks and Minifigs, whether it be by the owners of individual stores or by corporate to do events with them, and they've been a ton of fun. And by and large, I've had mostly positive experiences with Bricks and Miniix. And a lot of that boils down to the store owners. And we're going to get into that in a little bit. But just laying down the facts, it's a chain of stores around the US, over 100. I was literally at the opening of the 100 store. They brought me out for that and you can go there to sell your used Lego or to trade it in and to buy used Lego from them. Major major business. Now, the situation is that an individual named Brian Mancel and his 83year-old father spent 15 years and I'm actually going off of I took notes when I was taking watching all these videos. So, I'm if it looks like I'm reading I'm I'm reading off of bullet point notes that I've made to make sure I got all the facts right. Uh, but Brian Mancel and his father spent 15 years building one of the biggest sealed Lego Star Wars collections with around 780 sealed sets.

[00:04:48]Now, if you're watching this video, I'm guessing you're pretty deep in the Lego community. You probably understand the insane value of a 15-year-old 780 sealed set Lego Star Wars collection is that value is insane. Now, Bricks and Minigs had stated the value when they got it from him to be around $70 to $80,000. On marketing, they marketed it as worth up to $200,000.

[00:05:16]Uh, so obviously that is a little bit of bricks and miniix marketing. I've seen the 200k number thrown around a lot. I think that is a bricks and minifigs very optimistic marketing. If everything sold for the prices they wanted to sell for, I would imagine that the actual valuation is around 100k. That's still a lot of money, maybe even a little more.

[00:05:34]Uh the fact of the matter is though, it was advertised by Bricks and Minigs as a collection worth up to $200,000.

[00:05:42]So, by their own admission, that is what this collection is worth. Now, here's the thing. In November of 2023, Brian Mancel and his father in order to raise money for his kids' college funds and also to be able to take care of his father who has health issues, they went into a Bricks and Minigs in Salem Kaiser, which is in Oregon, and they said, "Hey, we want to consign these sets. So, we still own the sets, but we want you to sell them for us, and we will take a cut. Uh, you can take a cut of every single sale that happens, which is a very common thing for businesses to do. Consignment, which is how a lot of used Lego stores actually in Europe operate, means that I could walk into a bricks and minifig and say, "Hey, I have Mr. Gold. I am not selling you my Mr. Gold. I am giving you my Mr. Gold for no money. If you sell my Mr. gold, you can take a percentage of the amount you made on the sale and the rest of the money goes to me. It's a very fair way of doing business. Now, there's a lot of legal things that need to be done when you actually give up items for consignment. And there's a really, really helpful video that I watched that actually was a lawyer who sat down um and talked through the deep legality of the case. And that was the probably the video that was the most entertaining to me. It was the most interesting. it probably will not be the video that is the most entertaining to most people watching this video. I assume the more reactionary videos done that kind of shed light on the issues to begin with are going to be a little bit more entertaining. But for me personally who wanted to understand the facts of the case, I cannot recommend that video enough that talks about the legalities of how this works. At the end of the day, a legal contract was drafted with uh Brian Mancel and the Bricks and Minigs owner of that store that says that all of these items are on consignment. And so they said, "Okay, fantastic." And for almost a year, this arrangement worked. The store publicly advertised the collection on Facebook, which is where you could see Bricks and Minigs, the official Facebook page. The store was advertising that they have a $200,000 Lego Star Wars sealed collection available on consignment. Every month, Brian Mancel would go into the store physically in person and collect his payments monthly of what he was owed from the consignment sale. So, this all 100% was fully legal, fully working, and it was great. Then in November of 2024, uh specifically November 14th, 2024, a pretty major change happened. The owners of the Bricks and Minig store, the Gorman's, they approached corporate Bricks and Minigs to sell the store. And they basically said, "Hey, we got an overseas job offer. We're looking into maybe selling the store." And they said they didn't want to give it up just yet.

[00:08:32]They wanted to talk about being able to sell the store. Literally the same day they approached corporate and this is very very odd and I can think of a few reasons as to why corporate would do this. None of them are very good but the same day that they just said they were considering selling the store. Corporate sent a representative to the store and said, "Hey, we are going to terminate your franchise. Somebody else is going to come and take over the store.

[00:08:57]Corporate is going to take over this store and we'll find someone else to run it. If you're if your heart's not in the game, you're out." It's actually I I hate to say it, but this is kind of like uh it's very culty behavior that says that hey, we're like considering taking a job offer overseas. We might want to sell the store. And literally the same day, corporate says, okay, if you're not in it for the long run, you're out. And and corporate can decide to do this legally. That is in their rights. I'm just saying it's a little bit odd. And I think that it speaks to the way that corporate has acted throughout this entire procedure that honestly after seeing how they've responded to a lot of this, it kind of makes sense to me. This this is an action that is very in line with how I would expect Bricks and Minigs corporate to behave. Uh but on paper for literally any other franchise, this is very odd. Imagine if you're running a McDonald's, right? You open a McDonald's store, your husband or your wife, you get a job offer overseas and you you send an email to McDonald's and you're like, "Hey, we got this job offer. We're thinking about taking it.

[00:09:58]We maybe want to have a conversation if is there somebody else in the area who might want to take over this McDonald's." And you would think the reasonable thing to do would be to be like, "Okay, hey, congratulations.

[00:10:08]That's awesome. Um, yeah, let's have a conversation. If you don't want to run the store anymore, let's see if we can find somebody else. Let's talk about it." There was no let's talk about it here. Instead, Bricks and Minifigs, or in this case, McDonald's, came down the same day and said, "You are now kicked out of the store. We are taking this over." Super super strange. And this is actually all backed up because the security camera footage was saved from that day. So, this is not hearsay. This is not like uh this is not like who he said, she said. This is on video. The security cameras captured a representative from Bricks and Meix Corporate the same day arriving and literally kicking them out of the store.

[00:10:48]So the whole situation to begin with was escalated to a level in which is very weird and strange to me. More on that in a little bit. So in this security camera footage, which I will not play any of the footage here, I'm actually not really clear on what bits and pieces of footage can be played. I also know that Bricks and Man corporate is very aggressively going after any pieces of evidence that's online about this. They are trying to silence this story and to uh make it not be talked about. Um, and I don't want copyright strikes, but if you want to go and watch the original footage on the original video made by Reckless Men, a YouTuber who we're going to get to at a point in the story very soon, you can check that out. Uh, in any sense, it is irrefutable proof that a representative from corporate came down.

[00:11:32]And when they came down, the owner of the store, the Gormans, actually said, "Hey, all of the sets here, this Lego Star Wars sealed sets that you have, these are on consignment. How are we going to deal with that? Because if you're kicking me out of my store because I said I was considering maybe giving it up, you're kicking me out today. Um, I have this ongoing deal that I have a signed contract with uh this individual, um, Brian Manel and his father to sell his Lego. So, what's going to happen? because we don't own this inventory. This is his inventory.

[00:12:03]We didn't pay for it. We're just selling it for him and taking a cut. And literally, you can see on camera, the corporate uh representative says, "We are going to take this over. Do not worry about it. It's not your problem.

[00:12:16]This store is now ours, and we will take that on. Any agreement you had is going to be taken on by corporate." This is irrefutably on video, and you would think that this is a case closed, okay? that the situation is done. You have no idea how insane this story is about to get. I I cannot even describe how as somebody living in the US, how much this has honestly scared me. It has shaken my faith in our legal system in the US. It has shaken my faith in the justice system. It has really shaken my faith in the police. Um, and as a citizen of of America, of the United States of America, it's kind of made me embarrassed that this has now become a spectacle that at least the LEGO community is watching. But I I've seen this go beyond the LEGO community.

[00:13:05]There are YouTubers who are huge or big people talking about this. This is in the news uh as a major scandal. And it not only makes the Lego community look bad, it kind of makes the United States of America look bad for how gross of a miscarriage of justice there is going on here. And we're going to get to that later on in the story. But I cannot even believe what I was seeing on camera, how this was happening. I don't even know what I can say because I don't want to get targeted in some ways. I just want to present the facts as is and talk about it from a LEGO community perspective, which we're going to get to later on in this video. So, okay, Bricks and Mense Corporate took over. They seized the store. They kicked out the Gormans, the current owners, and they said that we are taking over the consignment. The exact phrasing was, "We're taking it over." Awesome. Okay.

[00:13:53]So, 8 days later on November 22nd, uh Brian Manel sent a written termination letter to Bricks and Minig saying, "Hey, you took over the store. I want to have my unsold inventory returned to me because I don't know when this is going to get sold." completely completely reasonable. And it would actually sound at this point, even though corporate made some like weird choices of coming in same day and kicking out the Gormans, I think that everybody operated in pretty good faith here. They said corporate said they would take over the consignment. Great. The the the owners, the Gormans, they're off the hook. Uh Brian 8 days later said, "Okay, well, you've taken over the store. I don't know when it's going to be back up and running. I don't know what the deal is.

[00:14:34]Can I have my products back? They're mine. I have this in a written agreement, a signed contract with the with the owner of the store, the previous owner of the owner of the store. These items are mine that you've agreed to take over because of the security camera footage. Completely fair. He was well in his rights to do that. Um, so here here's the legality of it, right? Uh, consignment means the title stays with the owner. The store is the custodian of the goods and not the owner. Um there is a a phrase that actually was was uh coined in in ancient the ancient Greeks literally came up with this and and this is an irrefutable piece of of law that has stood throughout human history since the time of of the the Greeks and the ancient Romans. Uh it's it's neodat quote non-habit which is no one gives what he does not have. A franchise termination clause cannot transfer ownership of property the franchisee never owned in the first place. And this is an irrefutable fact. It is something that ancient humans came up with that we we abide by as law-abiding members of society. This means that if Bricks and Miniigs continues to sell identifiable sets that belong to Brian Menel after written notice and potential conversion, Bricks and Minigs is liable for that because it does not like there's no legal defense that it's a mistake or that oh well we didn't know that they were on consignment because they knew it was on consignment and even if they didn't know that's not a good excuse because legally the items still belong to Brian Menel. Um, there's a practical lesson here for for any collector watching, and this actually does come from the legal video, but I think it's relevant to bring up here. Um, if you ever plan to sell your Lego on consignment under UCCc Article 9 in the United States, consignments over $1,000 to any merchant, which obviously this is worth way more than that. Bricks and Minifig says it's worth $200,000, should be backed by a UCCC1 filing. This costs you $20. It takes you 10 minutes to file and it is going to protect your consignments absolutely completely. Uh now Manel probably did not file or else I'm guessing this would have come up.

[00:16:42]However, he is saved by the merchant exception because Bricks and Minifigs is publicly known for selling others goods.

[00:16:50]So he is still covered. However, it would have cost $20 to file and have this be completely completely easily won. It's still a ridiculous situation.

[00:16:59]And again, it speaks to the the contrived nature of the United States legal, I guess, system that you have had to file this form to absolutely make sure that you're backed by a UCCc1 filing. But just to anybody who ever wants to sell your stuff on consignment, it's $20. It takes you 10 minutes. Fill out the UCCC1 form. Okay, so here is where the situation gets crazy. Um, Brian Menel then spends the next many months trying to get his Lego sets back from Bricks and Miniix. Bricks and Miniix corporate now says the consignment was unauthorized and prohibited and bricks and mini fix stores are not allowed to sell things on consignment. This is however a lie because you actually there there's a contract a bricks and mini fix contract surfaced online literally I think it was like yesterday night which was even more baffling to me like I was watching this all last night in disbelief but a contract surfaced last night of every Bricks and Minig store needs to sign this and I'm sure that now they've changed that but when this deal was made the bricks and mini fig store owners literally in their agreement with corporates says they are indeed allowed to sell things on consignment. Store owners and managers are legally allowed to sell things on consignment. So the main argument bricks and minifig is making which even if it were true I think is a very shaky argument that does not hold up. But their main argument is that they have said this whole time that oh the previous owner of this store was not allowed to sell things on consignment. He wasn't supposed to do that or she wasn't supposed to do that.

[00:18:39]So this is not our responsibility.

[00:18:41]Okay. Even if they were not allowed to do that under Bricks and Nene's contract, that's just throwing another issue on and detracting from the main signed contract. What Bricks thinking should be doing is saying, "Okay, we need to talk to the previous owner and maybe they should speak with them and say, "Hey, you you were in breach of contract when you sold these under consignment." It also went on for a year and Bricks and Minnie corporate was clearly making money from this.

[00:19:06]corporate makes money every time a sale happens and clearly they didn't care enough to stop them. So even if it was true that they were prohibited from selling things on consignment, they let it happen for basically a year without stopping it because they were making money from it. So were they really not allowed? Is is it really either way corporate looks bad? One way is that they didn't know it was happening, which is kind of crazy because if it was so prohibited and against the rules, they were marketing it as consignment and they were making money from it. So, I don't know how you don't notice that.

[00:19:39]And that is a serious accounting books error, which is a completely other legal issue. Or they knew that it was being sold on consignment and even if it wasn't allowed or it was allowed, they were still making money from it so they didn't care. So either way, corporate is not painted in the best light here. Uh the third option is that consignment was actually allowed in the first place, which as we know of last night, it was indeed allowed. So not only have they made this entire issue around the claim that consignment was unauthorized, but if you read the fine print of the bricks and minifigs contract, which is now publicly available online because people have posted it, it was actually allowed.

[00:20:15]So So none of their arguments hold up here. So, okay, in any sense, Bricks and Eix's own franchise disclosure document lists consignment as an approvable service. So, even if they didn't explicitly approve it, whatever, they were making money from it. And regardless of whatever if consignment was allowed or not, a contract was signed that legally these Lego sets belong to Brian Mancel and his father.

[00:20:41]Bricks and Minifigs owner doesn't own it. Bricks and Minigs corporate doesn't own it. a contract is signed that says that these legally are owned by him. So either way, it doesn't matter. But even if it did matter, it actually hurts them even more. So for 15 months, Brian Menel got nowhere. Attorneys that he went to quoted 60 to 70K just for an injunction.

[00:21:03]And this is not money that he had to spend. Obviously, he was selling off this prized Lego collection because they needed money to fund his father's medical expenses and to send his kids to college. So he doesn't have 60 to 70k on a whim to just spend suing bricks and minigants, which I think is what they're hoping would happen. I think that corporate was hoping that he would either lose all his money trying to sue them and lose or he would realize very quickly that oh this is not like I don't have the money to legally go after a major corporation. I cannot do this.

[00:21:33]Like this is not like the little man cannot do this. So he's just going to give up. And their hope was for him to give up. Uh, however, Brian Menel did not give up because $200,000 worth of Lego is not something I think anybody would just give up without a fight. And that is where things actually get crazy.

[00:21:50]Now, I do want to caveat this by saying a few things. This is where the main viral YouTube videos came out. A YouTuber named Reckless Ben was contacted by Brian Menel, the owner of the Lego, and he said, "Hey, you are known to do these like provocative gorilla journalism type of YouTube videos. Can you help me investigate this?" And uh Ben says, "Yes, I will.

[00:22:14]This is insane. I'm going to make a spectacle out of this because if you can't pay for this legally to fight them, what else can I do but make a spectacle out of it?" Now, the original video, there part one and part two of the video. Part two is currently locked behind Ben's Patreon payw wall, which I I think he said he's going to make it public next week. I really think part two should be published because part two got me very riled up and angry. Part one is like still insane, but part two made me lose faith in like the American justice system, and I think there's a lot of things that need to be discussed there. So, I cannot wait for that video to be made fully public for everybody to see. In any sense, I I actually went to the Patreon and I I paid to see part two because I've never done that in my life.

[00:22:55]I've never paid to see a YouTube video early in my life, but I paid just to have all the facts and it's even more insane. And I I don't want to spoil it on his behalf uh too significantly, but I will cover a couple of the facts in that video because I feel like they're relevant for this discussion. In any sense, uh Reckless Ben publishes part one of his YouTube video, which went mega mega viral. It's got millions of views. There are some of the biggest YouTubers in the world talking about this with millions of views on their own. News channels have picked this up.

[00:23:24]This is a rapidly developing story over the past like week, over the past few days to the point where again it is my birthday. I am sitting in my hotel room not building or reviewing the new Lego sets or doing stuff with my friends and family because this was what was important to me to cover because this story is developing literally right now.

[00:23:43]And I got so riled up watching those videos that I felt like I had to make a response to this. So, what I will say is that uh Ben Schneider aka Reckless Ben is a stunt and provocation YouTuber. He is not a lawyer. And I will also say that I will not necessarily fully endorse all of his methods. I think that he basically did what he felt he had to do, which was if the the law wasn't working, if if they could not pursue this legally, he was going to make a spectacle out of it. And throughout most of part one, which I will say is a very entertaining video. It's wellmade. It's it's super entertaining. He also puts himself in insane situations, and 90% of the video is just him like messing around with bricks and mini figs, trying to make them respond to him. And I don't necessarily think that the methods that he used are the best. He does a lot of pretty crazy like insane things to get bricks and mini figs to handle this. And it just keeps escalating and escalating.

[00:24:44]The police get involved. And I do think that like at least some of that responsibility of him getting arrested in part two and then him having to like flee to Mexico because he's now wanted is like that is again this story gets insane. Um, but I do think that like some of the percentage is because of how he handled the situation, which was I don't think Bricks and Miniakes corporate took him seriously because 90% of his video was him ragemating them.

[00:25:09]But also, if Bricks and Mini Fig stole $200,000 from me, I think that I would be ragemating them, too. I think that I would be doing some pretty ludicrous things to to piss them off. So, I can see why he did what he did. I don't necessarily condone the methods, but they are what they are. Um, I also want to take this time to note that I do feel bad that there's a lot of Bricks and Miniigs owners out there and I've had good experiences and I'm going to talk about this at the end of this video. Um, but I feel like a lot of Bricks and Minig stores that are unrelated to this issue are getting harassed because of these videos and I don't think that's fair to them. Um, I don't think that is really fair at all to the small business owners who just want to make a living and who are um, unfortunately victims, I think, of of Bricks and Minig corporate not addressing this issue and doing the right thing. I will also state that it's kind of funny in a sad way that Bricks and Minigs now is known for stealing Lego from old people and is known to be this like evil corrupt company when literally they could have avoided all of this bad press by just giving the Lego back which probably isn't actually worth 200K.

[00:26:16]They literally said the value of the Lego is maybe worth closer to 70 to 80k and then if they sold it at bricks and miniig prices they would be able to make 200k. Give them the Lego back. Okay.

[00:26:27]Like bricks and mini figs as a corporation. I cannot understand how boneheaded of a decision this is. It is one of the corporate decisions of all time.

[00:26:37]It It's a trade deal, right? Lose 70k worth of Lego sets that you did not pay for. They're not even losing money cuz bricks and mini figs didn't pay for these sets. They are sets that are owned by somebody else that literally are just sitting in a bricks and minig store, right? Give them back to the guy who owns them legally. or or instead of forfeiting 70K or maybe 100K worth of products you don't own and didn't pay for, not give them back from him, not give them back to him, and instead now make this a case where people like me who who literally like I used to be I loved bricks and mini figs. I I would go to bricks and mini figs all the time and I would go to their stores. I'd support their businesses. I I worked with corporate like people like me and the LEGO community to turn against you like this. The entire world is against bricks and minifigs has got to be one of the most ridiculous corporate decisions that I've ever made. And I don't talk about this on the channel a ton. I I've spent maybe a couple videos talking about it, but my main job is that I run a tech company. So I I literally run a startup.

[00:27:39]I uh have to deal with HR issues and PR issues and I deal with a ton of different clients and and work with millions of dollars. And I I know a little bit about hopefully a little bit about running a business. And I think it is insane to me that let's say I was the most evil CEO in the world, right? Like let's say I I on the street I robbed an old man. I took $200,000 from him, which to be clear, bricks and mini figs like didn't even really do because they didn't pay for the merchandise. So like it it would literally be like walking up to a guy on the street and I I stole $200,000 from him, right? and somebody finds out I do this and they're making us think about it, I have two choices ahead of me, right? I could give him the $200,000 back and literally lose nothing. It's not like I lost $200,000 because that's $200,000 that I didn't own. I stole that money so I could give it back to him, let the whole situation blow over and not of any reputational damage built or dealt. Or or hear me out, we could go sicko mode and just not give him back the money we stole and instead completely drag the reputation of my company through the mud and and absolutely destroy it. I think that even if you ask me today I had to pay $200,000 like I had to pay it out of my own pocket and my business's reputation or my business reputation gets completely obliterated. It would have been absolutely a no-brainer. I'll just pay the money even if I wasn't even it wrong. Like it's it's got to be one of the most ridiculous business decisions to literally steal $200,000 worth of products from somebody and instead of giving them back, just refuse and deny at every single point to the point where like it cannot have been worth it, right? Like it cannot have been worth it for Bricks and Mix to do this. You're a multi-million dollar corporation, you know? Like my company made $5 million last year and I would pay this. Bricks and Minigs is making like tens of millions, maybe more. Like that this should have been a no-brainer. But instead, they are like holding on to this product for no reason other than to be stubborn and to not give this this poor old man his money back or his Lego.

[00:29:52]He doesn't even want money. He just wants his Lego back. Like, I will say this right now on video. If if somehow he gets his Lego back and I can get in contact with him, I will host an auction and I will make sure they all sell and he gets the full amount of money that he needs for them, I will run the auction myself. I I'm saying this right now. If Bricks and Miniigs gives him back his Lego, I will team up with him and I will host an auction. I will promote it everywhere I can and we are going to sell his Lego sets for him and make sure that he gets all the money that he needs for his kids and for his dad's treatment. I mean that that's that's the least that we can do as a LEGO community because this is a ridiculous this is absolutely ridiculous. And I I will I will literally do that just just to help them because I think that this is such a bad situation to be in. And I feel so awfully for this family who can't afford to to even fight this massive corporation. And I can't believe that the corporation themselves is willing to let their name be dragged through the mud rightfully so to be labeled as villains rightfully so. then just forfeit maybe $100,000 70 to $80,000 worth of merchandise they didn't even pay for that they literally got for free. Like I it's ridiculous. Anyway, so what happens next is that Reckless Bened gets involved and I would highly recommend you watch his video where he basically does five semi-legal maneuvers to get this back. So, the first thing he does is that he says, "Okay, um I'm going to summarize these very briefly. They're they're very entertaining in his video, so I'd recommend you watch that. Um I'm not super convinced by a lot of these.

[00:31:28]Uh some of these are legally void, and some of these actually legally did work in his favor." Uh but scheme number one is the lottery scheme. He says that, "Okay, I'm going to raffle a consigned set through a a religious organization that I'm going to create to force police action here." Um, and his his theory there is that bricks and mini figs kept saying, "This is a civil case. So, we don't want the police involved. We don't want like the judge. This is a civil case. Deal with it civily." Um, and he wanted to turn it into a criminal offense. So, what is a criminal offense?

[00:32:00]Stealing from a lottery. So, he says, "Okay, I'm going to lottery off as a raffle one of the sets that Bricks and Miniigs is sitting on right now. And because legally they are the property uh they're not the property of Brooks and Anything Figs. They are the property of uh Brian Mancel. Brian can decide to to raffle off one of his sets. And when the raffle winner gets ready to get their prize, then they're going to go to the bricks and minigs and ask them for the product. And when Bricks and Minigs eventually refuses to give them the product, they are the ones who are now making it a criminal offense. Uh now legally this actually does not hold up.

[00:32:36]So it is legally it would turn it into criminal and a criminal offense. Um but legally a case can be both civil and criminal. So his point here was he was trying to convert the case from a civil case to a criminal case. In American law uh a case can actually be both. It can be both civil and criminal. And we know this by looking at the OJ Simpson case.

[00:32:58]That was a criminal case but it also was a civil case and he was actually pursued legally on both fronts. So doing this would have opened up the case to a criminal proceeding, but it still would not have changed the fact that it still was a civil case to be dealt with. So both were definitely true. This definitely did open it up to a criminal proceeding, but one could argue that this was not really needed. Now, the second scheme that they decide to go through after this does not really work is that they go through the delivery receipt trick. And this one is just not legal. Like this this would not have worked. Uh they get the manager of the Bricks and Figs to sign what she believes was a delivery slip, but actually was a no trespass and no police calls contract with liquidated damages of $5,000 per call. Uh this unfortunately is legally void because under American contract law, if you know you're signing a contract, it is your legal responsibility to read and understand that contract. So if I were to go to you and say, "Hey, I have a contract here. Uh please sign it." And you don't read it. And the contract says that all your Lego now belong to me. uh and you signed that, your LEGO now belongs to me and it's your fault for not reading it. The the loophole here that they messed up is that they framed the signing of this contract as a delivery receipt. So, the manager was unaware that the document she was signing was a contract. So, unfortunately, this scheme would not have worked. It's funny. It adds entertainment to the video. Um but it wouldn't have worked. Uh what this did actually accomplish though is that it accomplished something pretty important in the case which showed that the police were largely uninvolved and uninterested in assisting in this case. And it gets a lot more sinister when we get to part two where uh the police are actually weaponized against the the owner of this Lego. It's quite a crazy crazy story, but this actually started to lay down the threads of what was actually going on with law enforcement uh in this entire area uh revolving around this case. So that's what it accomplished. Um the the third thing that they tried, the third strategy they try is to uh this one actually works. It was to go into small claims court. Now the problem is that Oregon state law caps small claims at $10,000. Obviously we are dealing with a $200 collection uh $200,000 collection here. U but the small claims court caps out at $10,000. So what they did is that they had 10 separate plaintiffs that were basically they came they came to be that he gathered 10 other people with independent claims and they each sued Bricks and Minigs for $10,000 independently and basically they sidestepped by doing this they sidestepped both the cap and the claim spitting rules because they had independent claims by buying Lego from Brian Menel Lego that Bricks and Fix took from him and then refunding him back. It was a crazy scheme that legally, he walks through the full legality of this in the video. Legally, this actually all fully holds up. And it's kind of crazy how this worked. Uh, but this worked and they they went to court and they actually won. Um, and they won by default because bricks and mini figs refused to show up. Um, so they refused to show up, which means that the court ruled in favor of all 10 plaintiffs here for the small claims court. Uh, so now bricks and mini figs legally owes Brian Mancel $100,000. And so when they came to collect the $100,000 owed because they won in small claims court, Bricks and Nig's response was to immediately close the store and like a couple hours before they could get there and completely vacate. So they just could not find them, which is also insane. Like I think that if that is maybe the biggest admission of guilt here is that they they lost in court and then they just closed up shop and moved out so they could not be pursued which is crazy that this even happened and got to this point. Um, so now legally the way that this works in small claims court is that bricks and mini figs has up to one year to pay them or to challenge that claim. Uh, they could challenge the claim. They could have some uh they could have some arguments that well it wasn't made in good faith because uh 10 people it maybe they could try to invoke the claims splitting rule which legally it's exempt from that but it's a little bit of a gray area. I I think that bricks and mini figs could maybe argue it. Um but the fact that they didn't even try to argue it and just fled is kind of crazy. Uh the fourth thing that they do, uh there there's a couple of other things.

[00:37:07]There's like four and five other items, but I'm going to go into the final one here because this is where it gets really really crazy. Um is that essentially a phone call recording comes out that Brooks and Money Fix Corporate is just now trying to get uh Ben arrested for any reason to to just get him to like stop bugging them about this amount of money that they owe because they took it. um they he starts a GoFundMe to to help raise funds to just get him paid back. And in the GoFundMe, the language basically says that, hey, uh Bricks and Mini Figs has taken this collection, we are going to try to get him his money back. Um they then say that because he labeled them as a thief.

[00:37:46]Um they try to get him arrested and the police are fully on their side and he gets arrested for this, which legally does not actually hold up. Um, that is for one that is a a if you were to like liel somebody online, if you were to slander somebody, you cannot call the police and say that, hey, they are slandering me, arrest them, please. Um, but they do anyway. And the police were very much working with Bricks and Minifigs here, which is a completely separate story that honestly I do not have time to get into on this video, but I definitely recommend you watch part two of Ben's video when that comes out, which goes into the craziness surrounding the police. Um, Bricks and Minifigs then calls and claims that he has hard drugs on him, so he gets stopped and searched. Uh, his car gets impounded and never his car gets searched for like three hours at night.

[00:38:32]Um, they then send a team of policemen to his house because they say that he stole from them. So then they raid his house uh and and handcuff them to basically just harass them. So, so essentially what they're doing is that corporate or whoever is responsible here is now sending the police after the individual that they stole from to harass him enough so that he will just give up and decide that it's not worth it to get the money back. I don't know about you, but I think that if like if a big corporation wanted to steal from me so hard that they set the police to raid my house just to hassle me, I think that would just make me want to get my sets back even more. I think that all this did was to make him even more angry. At least I know how I would react. I would say that this is now my life's mission to get these sets back. Um, so I don't know if that worked, but it's also insane that they were able to weaponize the police force to do this. And it's actually quite scary that it is very possible that like because of false calls made in literally like they of lies made to the police, they were able to fully weaponize the police force of this small town to raid his house to stop them multiple times. Um, and it's it's an insane situation. I mean, I I cannot believe the situation has gotten to this point. At this point, there is now a warrant out for Ben's arrest because Bricks and Mini Figs has claimed that he is the one who stolen from them.

[00:39:49]Uh, so he has now fled to Mexico because he doesn't want to get arrested again.

[00:39:53]That is how insane this situation has become that they literally falsely claimed a ton of things that are not true and now have a warrant out for his arrest. I mean, the situation getting to this point is crazy. Um, so I say all this to say that essentially this is one of the most insane situations to happen in the LEGO community right now where it is both deeply disappointing and also shocking that a corporation like Bricks and Minigs, which has been a pretty big staple of the LEGO community is reacting in this way. And what I've just described is just the tip of the iceberg. Again, I I recommend watch part two when it comes out publicly or or pay his Patreon to watch it. Um, watch the legal breakdown I've linked below for all the facts of the case. Uh, at the end of the day, legally these sets belong to not bricks and mini figs.

[00:40:44]Legally, these sets belong to Brian Menel and they are doing everything in their power to just not give them back arguably like 80 to 90k worth of Lego sets. And again, it is certainly one of the corporate decisions of all time to have their brand name now be completely slandered and destroyed. This is in the news now. Like it's not just like people on YouTube reporting about this. This has become a a newsworthy case. And Bricks and Minigs is still just refusing to give back products that they didn't even pay for that they just had on consignment in one store. And they're they're still willing to prolong this entire thing, which is crazy how how it's still it's this is going on for months. Um and they're still just not giving back the Lego. Um, and there's been a lot of other points in the case that act towards very poor practice and shady behavior. Um, there was one point where they said, "Hey, we will give you your Lego sets back if you have a written apology." And then they realized a written apology could be used as evidence in court that they didn't do anything wrong. So, they did not give him a written apology. Instead, they verbally apologized over like a video and it was a whole thing. And then even after they sent the apology, Bricks and Minifigs was like, "Sych, never mind.

[00:41:56]we're not going to give you back your Lego even though we just said on camera that we would. And then a month later they were like what Lego? We we don't have any Lego. We we don't know what you're talking about. And uh like what how does that happen? Like how does a corporation on the phone on recording, you can watch this all in part one of the video by the way on recording the guy who who owns the bricks and mini figs, he's like, "Look, fine. I don't want to deal with this. Like I'll give you back your Lego. Just give me a written apology." And then they give him the video apology and he's like, "Okay, well thank you. I accept the apology.

[00:42:29]Now go apologize in person to the store." And then when they show up at the store, they get the police call on them for trespassing. So it kind of looks like he was just trying to bait them into going to the store just to get arrested. And then he says, "Okay, well fine. Sorry you tried. I didn't know."

[00:42:46]He claims he didn't know that they were going to get the police called on them.

[00:42:48]Um and all they did was walk in and try to apologize as well. So they they just got the police called on them for nothing. Um, and he's like, "Okay, fine.

[00:42:55]You apologized. I'll give you the Lego back. Come and get it tomorrow." So, they drive over, they go to get it. He's like, "Oh, I don't have it on me. I'll give it to you next week." So, they go the next week. And he's like, "I'll give it to you the next week." And this goes on for a month. And then a month later, he's just like, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have any Lego on me. Like, I this I have no idea what this is." And then he just blocks all their numbers and stops communication. So, the fact that they have tried multiple tricks and schemes to get to get Ben and to get uh Brian Mancel to legally admit that Bricks and Minigs is not in the wrong falsely. Like literally to lie cuz they they said just they want a written apology saying they're not in the wrong and they'll give the sets back. Like they've been dangling these sets in front of them saying that oh if you absolve us of guilt we will give them back. And then even when they were willing to do that and actually apologize, which is ridiculous by the way because why would like Brooks and anything should be the one apologizing to them, but they were willing to go and apologize and then still after they apologized to not give the sets back because it wasn't enough for them. Like this is a ridiculous, ridiculous situation. I am astounded as to how the American legal system has allowed this to happen. I I hope that this gets more news coverage. I hope that this gets I hope this gets statewide news coverage, nationwide news coverage. This is a scandal of the highest degree in the legal sense. This is an abuse of the law. This is an abuse of the police system in America who's supposed to be there to protect us, the law-abiding citizens. That's what police are for. Like, they are supposed to protect you. This is an abuse of the police to to use them for your own ends to harass and bully somebody who gave up their Lego for for it to be sold. That that he just wants it back. He just wants his Lego back. And to have all of this happen over on paper to Bricks and Minigakes, a multi-million dollar corporation, right?

[00:44:55]Tens of millions of dollars, probably more. for them to be making that much money and to be allowing this to explode over probably like a 100k less than 100k actual worth of goods. Call it 200k fine 200k worth of goods is mindboggling. I cannot believe I cannot believe that this is still going on. So, okay, and at the end of the day I I this is I've rambled for a long time. returning the Lego or selling at wholesale was the cheapest, cleanest, and lowest damage exit. Bricks and mini figs had a defendable conversion case, and they chose escalation instead. The collateral damage is unfortunately, and I I do want to spend a lot of time talking about this, the collateral damage from this is that people are going out and harassing unrelated bricks and miniigs. And I feel very bad about that because I know a lot of bricks and miniig owners. I've worked with a lot of amazing bricks and minig stores in the past. I've had very very deeply positive experiences working with bricks and mini fig stores and the damage here because corporate refuses to own up for their wrongdoing is now being absorbed by unrelated franchises and frontline employees while corporate is hiding behind the independent operator boil. Right? So I I I do want to digress here. One thing I did not mention is that corporate's whole argument one is that they did not allow consignment to happen and it allowed it happened under either against their knowledge or against their will but it happened for a year. But again, we have the contract that says it was allowed. So that's a lie. Even if it wasn't a lie, that's still not an acceptable defense because a contract was signed to consign the sets. Uh their second argument is that oh this is they keep saying this is a personal dispute between an owner that's no longer affiliated with us and uh another person and Bricks and Miniigs has nothing to do with this. Um that is not true because on camera bricks and minifigs corporate a representative from corporate on security camera literally says we will take over the consignment which is also they didn't need to say that on camera first of all they did not need to verbally say that uh for it to legally have passed to bricks and minigs. If you take over a business if you are a business that comes in and takes over a business you take on their their deals. You take on their contracts. Uh, number three is that they keep saying that, oh, the contract for the consignment was signed by the previous owner, and since Bricks and Minig signature isn't on it, since the current owner's signature isn't on it, then they're not responsible for this.

[00:47:30]And that's not how operating a business works, right? Like, I'm running a company today. I have signed a lot of contracts in my time. If I were to sell my startup to somebody tomorrow, let's say I sell my startup to Bricks and Minigs tomorrow, uh, Bricks and Minigs cannot then go to my clients and say, "I don't have to honor any of these contracts because Christopher Lee's name is on it and not mine." That's not how taking over a business works. That's legally like that's not how it works.

[00:47:57]Like that is like the most base definition of taking over a business is you take on the assets, you take on the debt, you take on the responsibilities of the business. And legally that is how it is structured. So the three arguments they've made are just completely false.

[00:48:12]And I think the failure from Bricks and Meig's corporate leadership to address these problems to do the right thing and give back the Lego or to even apologize or or to to operate in good faith is astounding and appalling to me because I think that even if Bricks and Minigs were to have made this mistake and they did all this and they even if they held on to LEGO for longer than they should have, if they today just put out an apology, they're like, "Hey, listen. We did not understand the full agreement of this consignment. We were operating under like the some impression that this was not a consignment. We now understand that look at this contract. It was a consignment. We're sorry. We're deeply sorry that we did this and we are going to give the Lego back. I don't think all is forgiven, but that's a big step, right? Like that's that's the right thing to do and they're not doing they're not doing the right thing. Like I think like my whole like moral sense, right? You're taught as a child stealing is wrong and the government and our legal systems are built to protect you from being stolen from. If somebody walk if I walk up to somebody on the street and steal money from them, I should get in trouble for that and the law should should pursue me for that. Uh but instead Bricks and Minigs has stolen corporate has stolen from somebody and they are refusing to own up for it. And the worst thing is is that our American legal system is not sufficient enough.

[00:49:43]Our legal system, I hate to say it, is so broken at this point that and our legal and police system that they can turn the police against the victim. They can turn the legal system against them.

[00:49:55]They can first say, "Oh, you're not going to be able to afford a legal attack here, so just give it up. We're going to take your stuff." That'd be like me stealing from a poor person and being like, "What are you gonna do?"

[00:50:05]Like, you you can't pay to sue me. I'm just going to take what little stuff you already have. Haha. Sucks for you.

[00:50:11]That's that's like cartoonishly evil.

[00:50:13]Like, this is this is a cartoonishly evil thing to do. And it it it is deeply upsetting to me as somebody who lives in the US who has and I've never gotten into politics on this channel, but certainly has a lot of thoughts on how the country has been run and has is running. And I won't get into that now, but I it's just setting all of that aside. It is such a blatant abuse of power and abuse of of money and abuse of principle in this country that this situation is continuing to happen. And the worst I mean the worst part is is that his stuff got stolen. One of the other very bad parts of this is that other Bricks and Miniig stores and and circle back to my main point, other Bricks and Miniig stores are catching unneeded flak from this. And I actually feel bad because there's a lot of Bricks and Mini Figs owners that do not deserve this. They don't deserve this. They're not related to this. But am I now going to go into a Bricks and Miniig store and shop at it? Probably not. I don't want to support corporate. Like I don't want to support corporate. I'm not going to shop at Bricks and Minifigs anymore until this situation is resolved. I'm saying that right now. Um, and even besides that, even like losing business is one thing. So, they're they're not going to be able to make as much money anymore uh to support their families, but also I know people are doing this the wrong way and they are harassing their local bricks and mini figs and they're they're calling they're harassing they're showing up in person to harass local bands. And I do have to say like that is not the way to do this, right? Like if you're going to like if you're going to go after anyone, go after bricks when you think corporate.

[00:51:45]If anything, corporate is making their own franchises the victims of this immense public pressure. This I mean there no matter what I say, right? No matter what I say on this YouTube video, there's somebody who's going to go and harass a bricks and mini figs employee and that employee is has done nothing wrong and they're just trying to earn a living. And you know whose fault that is? That's on corporate. So, not only is corporate being so greedy here and being so self-righteous in their stance, but they're actually affecting the lives and the sanity and livelihood of every single person employed under their umbrella. And and and this deeply impacts me because I'm somebody who as someone who runs my own business. The well-being of my employees is among the top priorities for me running my business, right? Like I I check in with my team and I have a smaller team than Bricks and Miniigs obviously, but I check in with my team members on a very regular basis to make sure they're liking their work, they're happy, they're not stressed, they're they're feeling fulfilled in what they do, right? Like that that's kind of what you need to do when you run a business. You you have to care about your employees because your employees without your employees, your business is not a business. You don't have a business without them. But Bricks and Minfigs is allowing their employees to get targeted by just refusing to make the situation right. And when I say Bam, I I mean Bam corporate. When they refuse to make the situation right, their employees are suffering. And can you imagine being so callous? Like I can't imagine being in the situation where like that's that that's on my conscience. If if I do something and if I refuse to own up to my mistake and my employees suffer because of that, that would eat me alive. That would be on my conscience. I hope I never ever have to feel that. But that is what's happening right now. So, either corporate just doesn't care or they they're so greedy that they they want to hold on to $200,000 worth of Lego they didn't even pay for that they have they're making millions. This is nothing to them. This is a drop in the bucket for them. But they're so greedy.

[00:53:46]They're wanting to hold on to this Lego they didn't even pay for when they could just give it back and let the whole thing wash over and and not have their employees be harassed and not have like not have their brand name dragged through the mud. I think Bricks and Miniix, this could be the end of it.

[00:54:00]Like maybe that's the title of the video. Is this the end of Bricks and Manifig? I I want something even harsher than that, though. Like Bricks and Anig deserves to die. Like maybe that's the title of the video. I don't know. We'll we'll test a few different versions of this because I'm fired up about this, you know? Like I I will not go into another bricks and things until the situation is resolved. So at the end of the day, if there's anything I can say here, don't harass franchises or employees. Please. The pressure belongs on corporate leadership who could end this today by doing what they should have done in November 2024. return the property or pay for it. That's all that needs to happen. As soon as they do that, this whole situation is done. So, it's just deeply upsetting to me that a pillar of the LEGO community has done this. And uh I I I will also add that it leaves a lot of us in in tough situations. Like I mean my issues are the least of concerns here. But um just to be upfront about this, I worked with a Bricks and Minig store like a month ago and in exchange for getting some Lego parts, some Ninjago parts, they asked if I'd be willing to do a video for them and I said absolutely. And that video was edited. It's done. And unlike Bricks and Minigs, I'm a man of my word.

[00:55:09]So I will publish that at some point or I will give the LEGO parts back. I will talk to the Bricks and Miniig owner, but I don't feel comfortable on my conscience publishing a video promoting a Bricks and Miniig store, especially right now. If the whole situation blows over, like that's fine. So, I'm kind of waiting for that. Um, but now it's like, well, now I feel bad because I don't want to post this video promoting Bricks and Minifigs, but I got I already got free stuff to make this video. And unlike bricks and mini figs, I don't just take free stuff and run away with it and steal it. Cuz see that that would be what bricks and minifigs would do would be, "Oh well, you already gave me the parts, so sucks for you. I'm not publishing this video." This video will either be published at some point or I will return the pieces which are sitting in a ziplock that I haven't touched for this reason. Or I will pay them for the value of the pieces. I will look up the price of every part on Brickling and I will personally pay the owner. Um, however, I am willing to wait it out at least a month or two to see if Bricks and Mini Fix Corporate will do the right thing and then I will feel more comfortable publishing a video. There's also another it's it's a really amazing video that I put together. Uh, Bricks My Mind came over, another big LEGO YouTuber, and we went on a really fun Lego shopping road trip and we went to the original Bricks and Minig store in Oregon and we went to all sort we actually probably almost I think we almost went to this store in question but ran out of time. Imagine that if we if we went to the site of infamy in any sense. This was like a month and a half ago before any of this was public. And I edited like one of the most I think one of the most entertaining vlogs of all time. And I love that video. I cannot wait for people to watch that. It's super funny. There's a lot of like really crazy things that happen over the course of this road trip with mind. And I don't feel comfortable posting that video that I spent we spent a week of our lives filming and then I spent like a couple days editing that we put a lot of effort into and we're really excited about that video because it features bricks and mini figs as stores we go to and I don't feel comfortable putting that video out anymore. So, like again, this is my problems are the least of of the concerns here, but I'm just saying in that in the sense that like I I'm saying this to say that I feel so strongly about this case that I'm literally putting any video that remotely features a Bricks and Minifigs in any way, even a video I'm very excited about, I am not publishing it.

[00:57:29]I'm putting it on hold until Bricks and Miniigs corporate will fix this. And frankly, if I had an extra 200K in the bank I could just give away and and not miss. I I would I would just give it I honestly would just give it to the family cuz I I feel so bad about it.

[00:57:45]There is a GoFundMe now. I have donated.

[00:57:47]I I recommend you do donate money that you can donate. Um whatever you are able to do, please do that. Uh because I feel so bad for the family and and and the Brian Menel and his aging his elderly father um who's over 80 years old who who doesn't even know about the situation because his health is in such bad shape. If he knows that a corporation stole his 15-year Lego collection, who knows what would happen to him. So they haven't even told the father that this happened. It's it's his son dealing with this. And it's so much pressure on on one guy who it really feels like it's one guy against a corporation, right? Like this is this is such a ludicrous case. This is straight out of Better Call Saul. This is a TV drama. Like you could write a TV show about this. I could see if this case blows up. I could see this case being a case that is covered in in law classes about like how how this collection was stolen and how we can use the law to not let this happen again, right? Like this is this is a crazy legal case. Uh what I will say is that this has caused me to read up a lot more on how contracts work in the US. I I'm I've learned way more about like franchise law in the past day than I ever thought I would have wanted to know in my life. I've wanted to make this video with a full understanding of the legality behind it because I did not want to come out swinging until I knew all the facts. And after I understand all the facts to what I understand, I'm not a lawyer obviously, so this is not legal advice or legal understanding, but from what I understand, uh there's a very clear poor player in this party.

[00:59:19]There is there is a a bad actor here and it certainly isn't Brian Mancel and I I think it is the corporation. So, it's pretty much all I have to say.

[00:59:27]Sorry to to make I think this is probably the most negative video that Duck Bricks has ever posted. It's definitely the most angry I've been on camera. I think I've been like funny like I I I often do things for the bit and there's a lot of times where like I I pretend to be very angry and I I play a character on the Duck Bricks channel and that's not actually me. This is me.

[00:59:47]Like I this is like very very much like this is my thoughts. I'm very angry about this. This is certainly the most angry I've been about anything on camera on Duck Bricks ever. I'm very fired up and I just hope that this video will help shed light on the situation. I think more people need to be talking about this. I I want this to get major news attention and I think that unfortunately as Bricks and Miniigs has shown they are not willing to play ball legally. They are not willing to to entertain. uh they're not willing to entertain going through legal procedures. Um so the only thing we can do is to blow this up, is to make videos about it, which is I've spent my day making this video about this, right?

[01:00:28]Like I I'm in Australia for my birthday.

[01:00:30]I'm not with my family right now. I'm not even doing videos that any other day it it would be like the most important thing for me is to like put out the Ninjago reviews. I'm not doing that right now because I'm doing this because I I have work calls that I missed because I'm filming this. My startup is the most important thing to me and and I've still missed work calls because I wanted to film this video because this is so near and dear to me and it sucks because I have a personal connection to bricks and mini figs. I when I was a kid, I got into Lego history partially because of them. I went on road trips to Oregon. I I lived in Washington State and I would drive to Oregon and it was a family activity to go to Bricks and Minigs together. And I feel like that's like now soured and I I can't like look back at those memories fondly anymore because I know what bricks and mini figs corporate is doing. However, this this iteration of corporate took over in 2018. So maybe all my pre208 memories are safe and whoever is running it before 2018 is awesome. But as it is right now, it's ridiculous. I hope that bricks and mini fakes corporate goes down because of this. I I feel very bad for the franchise owners who own the hundreds of stores across the US, but I think corporate needs to suffer. I I think corporate should not like at this point just giving back the LEGO is honestly not enough. I want to see corporate go down. I want to see them under new management. If I had the funds, I don't think I do, but if I did, I would take over Bricks and Mini Figs like or somebody should somebody should take over Bricks and Mini Figs. I don't know how much money they're making actually. That would be interesting to think about. But anyway, the current leadership in Bricks and Money Figs needs to go. If not jail, they need to get out of their position.

[01:02:07]Somebody else needs to either take over Bricks and Miniigs or unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, it needs to go under and let somebody else run franchises. I I know a lot of great people I know a lot of people in business who would who would love to take on a challenge like this. Heck, maybe I would like if if I wasn't so focused on our current line of business, I would be dedicating all my time into making a rival like I would make mini figs and bricks. I would be making a rival franchisee store. I would be convincing people to get out of their contracts and and franchise under me instead, right? Like I I think like I I want to see like I have now such a drive and passion to see Bricks and Minigs go down. I I want to corporate go down and I am sorry to all the franchise owners.

[01:02:47]They don't deserve this and I hope that they are able to land on their feet. And I honestly hope that some something else will come and fill the void and they'll be able to be franchises under that or they can just change their names. I don't know, change their names from Bricks and Mini Figs. call yourself something else. I like those stores better. Anyway, yeah, I don't really have a conclusion here. This has been rambling off the top of my head. Um, I had five bullet points or five or six bullet points on screen I've been like kind of glancing at. This is not useful anymore. Um, yeah. Uh, down with bricks and mini figs. Let's get Brian his collection back.

[01:03:26]Bye.