This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

Reckless Ben and the $200,000 LEGO Mystery | Part 1

September 22, 2026

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5 min read

Reckless Ben and the $200,000 LEGO Mystery | Part 1

An 83-year-old man named Ed Mansell spent years building a collection of rare, retired Star Wars LEGO sets, starting back in the 1990s. He planned to sell them. His son Brian Mansell handled the business side. On November 22, 2023, Brian entered into a consignment agreement with Bricks and Minifigs (BAM), a franchise in Salem, Oregon, owned by Crystal Law (now Crystal Law Gorman). Under the agreement, the LEGOs remained the Mansell family's property; the store would sell them and take a cut. What followed was a saga involving a YouTuber who created a fake religion, impersonated a delivery driver, tricked someone into signing a forged contract, staged a raffle for LEGOs he didn't own, got arrested twice, and was eventually sued by a LEGO company for racketeering. But underneath all that chaos is a question that nobody has cleanly answered: Where are the LEGOs?

The Disputed Collection

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What you'll learn

1 Reckless Ben and the $200,000 LEGO Mystery | Part 1
2 (01:36) **The Setup** - An 83-year-old man tries to sell his Star Wars LEGO collection, and a YouTuber creates a fake religion, impersonates a delivery driver, stages a raffle for LEGOs he doesn't own, gets arrested twice, and faces a racketeering lawsuit
3 (03:20) **The Basic Framework** - A family owns a valuable Star Wars LEGO collection that disappears after being consigned to a store called Bricks & Minifigs (BAM)
4 (04:59) **The Mansell Collection** - Ed Mansell (83, possibly 89) spent years building a large collection of rare retired Star Wars LEGO sets starting in the 1990s
5 (06:51) **The Value Discrepancy** - How much the collection was worth is hotly disputed across multiple sources
6 (12:14) **Crystal Law and the Franchise Complication** - Crystal Law Gorman owned the BAM franchise, and the conflict existed before Reckless Ben entered the scene
7 (15:36) **The Store Changes Hands** - BAM terminates Crystal's franchise on November 14, 2024, repossesses the store, and the LEGOs change ownership twice

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

In an attempt to help his dad sell his valuable Star Wars LEGO collection, Bryan Mansell places them on consignment with his local Bricks & Minifigs store. The store changes hands. And somewhere along the way, a huge portion of the collection becomes impossible to account for.

Enter YouTuber Reckless Ben.

What starts as an attempt to help a family recover their LEGO quickly turns into fake businesses, undercover stunts, a fake religion, a forged "contract," small claims lawsuits, police showing up—and eventually, arrests.

But there's something millions of viewers didn't know when Ben's investigation went viral: by the time his first video dropped, this fight had already been escalating for months.

And Bricks & Minifigs was about to tell a very different version of the story.

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