Bricks & Minifigs (BAM) has published a lengthy public statement setting out the company's position on a dispute that has generated widespread attention across the LEGO community.
The dispute centres on a LEGO collection that Bryan Mansell says he placed with the former BAM Salem franchise owner under a consignment deal. After BAM Corporate repossessed the store, Mansell alleged that a significant portion of the collection – valued by him at up to $200,000 – was never returned.
In its new statement, BAM argues that the dispute stems from an agreement between Mansell and former Salem franchise owner Chrystal Law/Gorman rather than any company-authorised arrangement.
The franchisor says Law/Gorman entered into the agreement without corporate knowledge or approval and in violation of franchise rules. Law/Gorman disputes BAM’s account. In a Reddit post, she claimed Corporate knew about the arrangement and shared a document she says supports that position.
However, in an excerpt from the Franchise operations manual seen by Brick Fanatics, it states BAM instructs franchisees that their businesses should ‘ONLY buy’ products and ‘DO NOT lend, loan, consign or pawn’ items brought into stores.
Bricks & Minifigs says this policy demonstrates that the arrangement at the centre of the dispute fell outside approved company practices. CEO Ammon McNeff also told Brick Fanatics that the company is ‘genuinely regretful’ that the dispute remains unresolved.
"From the beginning, our position has been straightforward: any inventory that doesn't belong to us should go back to its rightful owner,” he said. “What is true is that a family is caught in a difficult situation that originated with a franchisee who went outside corporate policy. We take that seriously. We are not hiding from it. But the facts of what actually happened are very different from what is being presented online.”
McNeff stated that when Mansell’s legal representative contacted the company, BAM referred the matter to its legal counsel but did not receive a follow-up response.
In the wider statement, BAM said that when it took over the Salem store, it discovered a small number of sets, valued between $2,000 and $5,000, that may relate to Mansell’s collection based on the information it received.
McNeff said BAM set aside that inventory and offered to return it as a courtesy with no legal obligation. He added that the offer still stands.
According to BAM’s statement, Bricks & Minifigs found no evidence that the full collection remained at the store when corporate repossessed the business. The company claims sales records show the former franchisee sold a significant quantity of similar inventory before the repossession and says some items may have moved to an off-site storage location.
BAM also disputes the valuation figures attached to the collection. It says that while headlines have used the $100,000 to $200,000 figure, the only documentation provided by the family months later was a spreadsheet listing a collection worth in the range of $60,000 to $80,000.
When asked about legal proceedings connected to the dispute, McNeff declined to discuss details but rejected allegations of wrongdoing by the company.
He said: "No court has found Bricks & Minifigs, its corporate leadership, or its current Salem franchisees guilty of theft or any related wrongdoing. Claims to the contrary circulating online are false. We are fully cooperating with the appropriate legal processes and are confident the facts will bear out our position."
McNeff also pushed back against claims that Bricks & Minifigs corporate assumed responsibility for the original agreement.
"The consignment arrangement at the centre of this dispute was made by a former independent franchise owner, without corporate knowledge, without corporate approval, and in direct violation of our franchise agreement and Operations Manual, which explicitly prohibits consignment," he said.
The statement also addresses the wider fallout from the controversy. BAM says franchise owners and employees who had no involvement in the Salem dispute have faced harassment, review bombing and threats since the story gained traction online.
The company says it will respond by strengthening inventory controls, expanding documentation requirements and introducing additional training for franchise owners and staff. BAM argues that those measures will reduce the risk of similar situations arising in the future.
Despite defending its handling of the matter, the company says it remains willing to work with the Mansell family through legal representatives and verified documentation to seek a resolution. McNeff said this offer has already passed through private channels.
For now, the dispute remains unresolved, with BAM, Mansell and YouTuber ‘Reckless’ Ben Schneider – who has produced videos on the dispute, bringing the case to a wider audience – continuing to present sharply different accounts of what happened to the collection.
Featured image: Bricks & Minifigs
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