A federal judge signed a preliminary injunction in the Bricks and Minifigs civil case on Tuesday, replacing an earlier temporary order and restoring Ben Schneider’s ability to post about the dispute. The new order also keeps in place a 100-meter stay-away rule for Schneider and people associated with him.
Schneider, better known on YouTube as Reckless Ben, posted a new update to paid subscribers after the court action and said his First Amendment rights had been reinstated. The timing matters because the order changes what a central figure in the fight can say publicly while the case is still moving through court.
The injunction signed by U.S. District Judge David Barlow allows anyone involved in the civil case filed by Bricks and Minifigs against Schneider and Bryan Mansell to take part in public commentary about the dispute. It also bars Schneider and those associated with him from trespassing, making threats, interfering with business or destroying property, but it removed the earlier restriction that had kept him from posting content tied to Bricks and Minifigs. Bricks and Minifigs had asked 4th District Court Judge Tony Graf Jr. for the temporary order before the case shifted, and the company later sought the federal move as well.
The case started with Schneider’s videos about a consignment agreement involving Bryan Mansell and a since-closed Bricks and Minifigs franchise location in Oregon. Mansell said the store’s owners did not keep the agreement after the franchise was passed to someone else through corporate and that the LEGO collection was not returned. Bricks and Minifigs said it does not have the Legos, but also said records show $61,000 of the collection was sold before the franchise changed hands and that Mansell may have received only $15,000 in payments.
That is where the account gets harder to square. Bricks and Minifigs says the franchise owner stored the collection off-site or took it before the transfer, and that the transition was not smooth. At the same time, the company said that when Brandon Best and Josh Johnson took over the Salem location, they found only a small number of Star Wars products in the store, worth at cost between $2,000 and $5,000, and offered those sets to Mansell as a courtesy, beginning in December 2024. The company said it has repeated that offer multiple times.
Graf had asked for clarification on which people and franchises would be covered by the stay-away language and what would happen to videos that had been taken down under the earlier order. A joint response said the language was carefully designed by both sides, that franchise locations are easy to identify and that no one is aware of any videos being removed as required by the earlier order. Barlow has not yet decided whether the case belongs in federal court, and he also asked for information about where employees of Reckless Ben live.
Bricks and Minifigs said the federal move allows issues involving federal law to be properly addressed, but does not change the underlying dispute. The company said the matter will be handled through private mediation and that it hopes to resolve everything in coming weeks. For now, Schneider can speak again, but he and those around him still have to keep their distance and keep their hands off the business while the fight over the collection continues.
