A “stolen” Star Wars LEGO collection valued at over $200,000 has sparked one of the most bizarre internet dramas in recent memory, and now Patreon’s CEO and co-founder has stepped directly into the fray.
Jack Conte, who runs the crowdfunding platform, posted a video explaining that Patreon had received a legal notice from LEGO reseller Bricks & Minifigs. The company demanded that Patreon shut down a campaign supporting Reckless Ben, a YouTuber who has been documenting the controversy.
“After an extensive review and investigation by Patreon’s trust and safety team, we have in fact unfortunately determined that Bricks & Minifigs… can stuff it. We’re keeping Ben’s page up. And if Bricks & Minifigs doesn’t like that, they can sue us.”
Conte’s blunt refusal represents merely the surface of a much deeper and stranger saga. Several high-profile videos from Reckless Ben have kept the story burning across the internet. The YouTuber now says he has fled to Mexico to avoid arrest, and he is depending on his Patreon campaign for financial support.
To understand how this escalated, it helps to look back two weeks to when an initial report appeared. That report focused on a missing shipment of Star Wars LEGO that had been entrusted to a Bricks & Minifigs location in Keizer, Oregon. An 83-year-old man and his son, Bryan, had brought the collection to the store in 2024.
Bryan and his father had assembled an enormous hoard of Star Wars sets and rare minifigures over many years. They wanted to sell it to cover college tuition for Bryan’s children. The Keizer store agreed to take the entire collection on consignment, selling it gradually and splitting the proceeds between the business and Bryan’s family. Then the store suddenly changed ownership, and control of the collection became contested.
According to Reckless Ben’s video, Bricks & Minifigs’ corporate leadership installed a new operator at the Keizer location. This new owner, the YouTuber claims, began selling pieces from the Star Wars collection without sending further payments to Bryan.
The previous owners of the Keizer outlet, the ones who had originally worked with Bryan, have also spoken out publicly. They allege that corporate managers at Bricks & Minifigs seized their inventory and pushed them out of the business. In a video, they present evidence they say shows they were threatened with crushing lawsuits if they did not comply, leaving them in “a whole lot of s***.” The couple had hoped to exit the Bricks & Minifigs franchise in a way that would let them sell their stake and relocate overseas. Instead, they say they were forced to spend $30,000 on legal fees fighting what they describe as a hostile takeover. A GoFundMe launched to assist them has pulled in more than $66,000.
Reckless Ben’s own role in this affair, and Bricks & Minifigs’ reaction to the publicity, may be the most startling elements of all. After pulling various stunts to gather information, the YouTuber managed to file a lawsuit against Bricks & Minifigs alleging theft of the LEGO collection. Within days, the Keizer location closed permanently. Reckless Ben claims the shutdown was engineered to block the litigation from advancing.
As he dug deeper into the story, Reckless Ben repeatedly crossed paths with law enforcement and was arrested on multiple occasions. In one case, he recorded himself being pulled over by police who said he was driving under the influence of drugs. Officers searched his car for heroin. He was ultimately arrested on a stalking charge, following earlier accusations that he and associates had been harassing people and trespassing at the Bricks & Minifigs store and at the current owner’s residence.
In his video, portions of which were filmed in Mexico, Reckless Ben pushes back against several claims in another video. One point he disputes is the assertion that he had “glossy” eyes, which police cited as justification for the drug search. The YouTuber shares dashcam footage he obtained from police that he says reveals officers thought he was sober and were simply trying to “scare” him. It is in this same video that Reckless Ben alleges local police are aligned with Bricks & Minifigs’ corporate ownership and the Keizer store’s new manager, ties he attributes to shared connections with the Mormon church.
Bricks & Minifigs issued an official statement saying it was “not a party” to the original consignment agreement, “nor were subsequent franchisees who took on the ownership of the location after the former owners were removed.” The company added that “consignment deals are expressly prohibited under our franchise agreements.” The former owners of the Keizer outlet have challenged this by producing their contract, which they say clearly permits consignments.
Reckless Ben’s videos push back with footage he says captures the outlet’s new owner discussing the consignment, plus photographs of remaining sets from the collection still on the property and an inventory listing them with prices.
“Our position remains simple. Bricks & Minifigs Corporate was not a party to the unauthorized consignment agreement. Any legitimate claims should be resolved through the proper legal channels, where facts can be evaluated fairly… Because this matter involves active legal issues, we will provide further updates only when it is appropriate and legally permissable to do so.”
The chain later asked Patreon to terminate Reckless Ben’s account. As noted above, Conte declined.
The situation remains extraordinarily tangled, and it appears far from over. Reckless Ben is preparing to release another video updating viewers on his legal standing and the status of his lawsuit against Bricks & Minifigs. Throughout all of this, the fate of the LEGO Star Wars collection itself remains unresolved. That question likely will not be answered unless and until the litigation runs its course. Reckless Ben has gained substantial internet notoriety through the dispute, but he maintains his focus is on pursuing Bricks & Minifigs on behalf of Bryan and his elderly father. He has also started a separate GoFundMe for the two men to recover their losses. At last check, that fundraiser had reached $323,000.
