Bricks and Minifigs got the Mansell Family GoFundMe taken down?
The $445,000-plus GoFundMe set up by Reckless Ben to compensate the Mansell family for their allegedly stolen LEGO collection was taken down from the platform on the evening of June 9, 2026.
The GoFundMe is gone.
The fundraiser titled “Help Bryan Recover His Stolen LEGO Collection,” which YouTuber Ben Schneider (”Reckless Ben”) established to compensate Bryan Mansell and his 83-year-old father Eric Mansell for their allegedly stolen $200,000 Star Wars LEGO collection, has been removed from GoFundMe. The fundraiser URL now returns a “Fundraiser not found” error as of the evening of June 9, 2026.
The takedown was first publicly surfaced by content creator Michael “LegacyKillaHD” on X at approximately 5:24 PM ET on June 9.
The post: “Another LEGO scandal update! Due to a Utah Judge granting Bricks & Minifigs a Temporary Restraining Order against Reckless Ben & Bryan Mansell, their $400k Gofundme has been TAKEN down. Unclear if it will come back up but I’d bet BAM will go after the funds in their lawsuit.“
Schneider himself confirmed the takedown in a follow-up post on his own account approximately two hours later, per screenshot evidence circulating in the X thread.
The GoFundMe was at $445,000 yesterday
The fundraiser had been the most visible financial element of the Bricks and Minifigs scandal. As of the morning of June 8, 2026, the GoFundMe had raised over $445,000 from thousands of donors. Schneider had announced he would place the donations into a legal trust to help Mansell pay legal fees rather than distribute them directly, given the active RICO lawsuit BAM filed against both Schneider and Mansell on May 27, 2026.
The original $28,000 fundraising goal was passed within hours of Schneider’s first investigation video going viral in late May. The fund grew steadily over the following two weeks as Schneider’s coverage accumulated millions of YouTube views.
What the TRO actually covered
A Temporary Restraining Order dated May 28, 2026 from Judge Tony Graf Jr. of the Fourth District Court of Utah ordered Schneider to remove videos related to the Bricks and Minifigs dispute, stay 1,000 yards from BAM employees’ homes, cover signs, and stop soliciting BAM employees as “undercover agents.”
The TRO also stated that Schneider’s previous videos may be subject to removal because they contain information related to “the private legal dispute underlying this matter.”
Whether the TRO explicitly covered the GoFundMe is not yet publicly confirmed. The fundraiser may have been pulled by GoFundMe voluntarily in response to BAM’s legal pressure, compelled by an updated court order beyond the May 28 TRO, or taken down by Schneider or Mansell themselves to comply with the existing order.
What is clear: in his June 9 “final message” video, Schneider explicitly warned that continuing to post about BAM would put the GoFundMe at risk. His direct quote: “if I do that, then all my friends get screwed with this lawsuit, and we lose all the GoFundMe money we raised, like, immediately.“
The fundraiser came down within hours of that warning.
The Canadian trucker precedent
The closest comparable legal situation is the 2022 Canadian Freedom Convoy fundraiser.
In February 2022, GoFundMe removed the Freedom Convoy fundraiser that had raised over $10 million for Canadian truckers protesting COVID-19 mandates, citing terms of service violations related to “promotion of violence and harassment.” GoFundMe initially announced it would redirect the funds to other charities but reversed course under public and legal pressure, ultimately refunding donations to the original donors.
The convoy organizers then moved to GiveSendGo, which raised additional millions before an Ontario court issued a Mareva injunction freezing approximately $7.8 million in donations following a class-action lawsuit by Ottawa businesses and residents alleging damages from the protest.
The legal pattern is direct: platform pulls a fundraiser tied to active litigation, court freezes the funds, lawsuit proceeds, donors eventually get refunded only after extended legal proceedings.
The Canadian precedent suggests that BAM’s strategy may be to attempt exactly this kind of attachment of the Mansell family GoFundMe funds as part of its civil damages claim. Whether a Utah court would issue an equivalent attachment against a US-based crowdfunding platform’s standard refund procedures is a legal question that has not been tested in this exact form.
Where the money goes now
The most pressing question for the thousands of donors who contributed to the fund: what happens to the $445,000 already raised?
GoFundMe’s standard policy when a fundraiser is removed is to refund donations to the original donors, typically within 7 to 14 business days. Whether that policy applies in this situation depends on why the fundraiser was removed and what the platform’s review process determined.
If BAM’s RICO lawsuit successfully argues that the GoFundMe was tied to a coordinated campaign of “defamation, harassment, trespassing, and extortion” (the language of BAM’s May 27 filing), the company could potentially attempt to attach the funds as damages. Whether such an attachment would actually succeed against GoFundMe’s standard refund procedures is the question every donor is now asking.
The most likely outcome, based on GoFundMe’s prior takedown patterns with viral fundraisers and the Canadian convoy precedent: donations get refunded over the next two weeks, the fundraiser stays offline pending resolution of the active litigation, and Mansell’s legal fees become his own problem until the underlying civil suits resolve.
Schneider has lost his three most important platforms
The June 9 situation puts Schneider in a substantially worse position than he was 72 hours ago.
His YouTube content on Bricks and Minifigs is under court order to be removed. His Patreon survived BAM’s takedown attempt thanks to Patreon CEO Jack Conte‘s public refusal on June 3, but Schneider is no longer allowed to post BAM content there. The GoFundMe that was funding the Mansell family’s legal defense is now offline.
The court order is doing exactly what BAM presumably hoped it would do when the company filed the RICO lawsuit on May 27. Schneider’s investigative apparatus has been dismantled through litigation faster than any creator-vs-corporation dispute in recent memory.
What’s next
Schneider is scheduled to appear at the Fourth District Court of Utah for the June 22, 2026 hearing where he can formally present his side of the case and potentially challenge the existing TRO. Until then, he is legally compelled to stay quiet on BAM, his GoFundMe is offline, and the Mansell family is left waiting for whatever compensation BAM agreed to provide in its June 4 corporate statement.
BAM has not yet issued a public statement on the GoFundMe takedown.
The $445,000 that thousands of donors put up to help an 83-year-old man recover his LEGO collection is now sitting in GoFundMe’s pending-refund queue. Whether it gets returned to donors over the next two weeks or held pending litigation resolution is the next major question. Whether Bryan Mansell ever sees a dollar of it is the question after that.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.
Hat Tips:
LegacyKillaHD / Michael (June 9, 2026, ~5:24 PM ET), primary public source for the GoFundMe takedown including the screenshot showing “Fundraiser not found” at gofundme.com/f/help-bryan-recover-his-lego-collection and the connection to the Utah TRO against Reckless Ben and Bryan Mansell
Reckless Ben / Ben Schneider (June 9, 2026, ~6:00 PM ET), direct confirmation of the GoFundMe takedown via Schneider’s own X post
Jelte (@j3lte) (June 9, 2026, 5:39 PM ET), verified amplification of the GoFundMe takedown news reaching over 95,000 views on X
KSL.com (June 4, 2026), primary source for Judge Tony Graf Jr.’s May 28 Temporary Restraining Order against Schneider including the video removal mandate, 1,000-yard distance requirement, and the June 22 hearing date
Kotaku (June 9, 2026), Reckless Ben “Bad News” final message video coverage including the TRO scope analysis and the explicit warning about GoFundMe risk
Brick Fanatics (June 9, 2026), comprehensive coverage of the Schneider “final message” video including the 1 minute 42 second runtime and the full “if I do that, then all my friends get screwed with this lawsuit and we lose all the GoFundMe money we raised immediately” quote
Sportskeeda / UNILAD Tech (June 9, 2026), additional context on the Schneider June 9 “Bad News” video including his completion of Part 3 of the investigation that cannot be released
Wikipedia / Bricks & Minifigs–Reckless Ben controversy (June 9, 2026), comprehensive timeline aggregator including the $445,000 fundraising total and Schneider’s announcement of placing donations in a legal trust
CBC News / Reuters / National Post (February 2022), Canadian Freedom Convoy fundraiser legal precedent including the initial GoFundMe takedown, GiveSendGo handoff, Ontario Mareva injunction freezing approximately $7.8 million, and the eventual donor refund pattern
Utah Fourth District Court Case No. 260402353, the active Utah RICO lawsuit filed May 27, 2026 by BAM Franchising against Schneider, Mansell, Law-Gorman, and others