Update · September 12, 2026
Reckless Ben has opened the first Reckless Bricks store in Tucson, Arizona
The first store to carry Ben Schneider’s name opened at noon on Saturday at 8110 S Houghton Rd STE 162 in Tucson, in the location BAM’s own April disclosure lists as Bricks & Minifigs Southeast Tucson. It is open until 8 tonight and 10 to 8 on Sunday, and by the crew’s own posts Schneider is there both days; Schneider, Total AFOL, BJC Live and Sheldon Norcross streamed from the floor on Saturday. On his own stream, Schneider described the deal he offered every Bricks & Minifigs owner: put Reckless Bricks on your store, “pay me zero percent,” and he advertises it for free, against BAM’s royalty of 6 percent of revenue or $500 a month. He calls it “the first domino.”
PRIMARY SOURCEthe store’s own website and four public streams from inside it on Saturday, September 12, including Schneider’s ownCONFIRMEDBAM’s 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document lists Theodore and Ingrid Roberts, 8110 South Houghton Road Suite 162, Tucson, as a franchised outlet as of December 31, 2025; its Item 6 sets the royalty at the greater of 6% of revenues or $500 a month; on Saturday afternoon BAM’s store locator still listed “Southeast Tucson, AZ” at 8110 S Houghton Rd, and the store’s page on BAM’s website still called it an “Authorized LEGO® Reseller”CONFIRMEDBAM’s current franchise agreement bars a departing owner for two years from any “Competitive Business” in the territory or within five miles of any BAM store; its Item 17 summary of the same clause says three years and 25 milesUNRESOLVEDhow the store left: Schneider says it “closed down as a Bricks and Minifigs first” and that BAM was sent a trespass notice on Friday; neither BAM nor the owners have said anything in public
What BAM’s paperwork says it is
Bricks & Minifigs Southeast Tucson opened in 2024 in a strip at Rita Ranch, one of three Bricks & Minifigs stores in the city. BAM’s 2026 disclosure document, issued in April, carries it in Exhibit F, the roster of franchised outlets as of December 31, 2025, under its owners’ names, Theodore and Ingrid Roberts. On Saturday afternoon, hours after the ribbon, BAM’s store locator still listed it as “Southeast Tucson, AZ,” and its page on BAM’s website still read “Authorized LEGO® Reseller in Southeast Tucson, AZ,” with the Houghton Road address. The listing carries no phone number and no hours; BAM’s other two Tucson listings carry both. For the name, Item 6 of the same disclosure charges every owner the greater of 6 percent of revenues or $500 a month, due on the tenth, by direct debit. Through Saturday afternoon, BAM said nothing about the store anywhere.
Authorized LEGO® Reseller in Southeast Tucson, AZ | Bricks & Minifigs
Southeast Tucson, AZ. Store Details. Address: 8110 S Houghton Rd STE 162, Tucson, AZ 85747.
What it says it is now
The store’s website describes a different business at the same address, 8110 S Houghton Rd STE 162, open seven days a week: action figures, die-cast cars, collectibles, custom minifigures, bulk bricks, trade-ins, birthday parties. It calls itself veteran-owned and operated. The name Bricks & Minifigs appears nowhere on it. By Saturday the site answered at a new address, recklessbricks.store.
Tucson’s Independent Toy & Collectibles Hub. Play & Build Without Limits. Discover thousands of toys, action figures, die-cast cars, collectibles, custom minifigures, and creative brick sets. Buy, sell, trade, or build at Reckless Bricks!
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.
The offer
Schneider’s own channel went live early in the afternoon under the title “We opened a store!” and opened with the deal. “A lot of the franchise owners, they all have to pay six percent to Bricks and Minifigs to use a name,” he said. “So I put an idea out there. I was like, hey, what if any of these franchises want to rebrand? You can put Reckless Bricks on your store. You can just pay me zero percent. You just do it for free. I’ll advertise you guys for free. So finally there was a store in Tucson. He was down.”
“You can put Reckless Bricks on your store. You can just pay me zero percent.”
By his account the store was weeks from closing. “They said this store was about to close in like two to three weeks because they couldn’t afford it anymore, because no customers were coming in.” And later, of the owner: “His store is down 70 percent of what it was last year. So he’s like, I literally can’t pay my employees anymore. I have no other options. If corporate wants to come and take over my store, I don’t care anymore. So that’s why he changed it.” The owner came on camera. Schneider introduced him only as the owner; BAM’s own Exhibit F supplies the name, Theodore Roberts. “He used to own a Bricks and Minifigs here, right?” “I did.” “How’s business going today?” “Pretty good so far. Pretty busy.”
Schneider’s theory of why no other owner has done it: “I think the reason none of them are doing it is because they’re scared that corporate’s going to take over the store.” His theory of what happens next: “If this store is successful, then all of the other stores might follow. And so we’re calling this the first domino.” On the mechanics, he was careful and vague in the same breath: “I don’t know all the legal stuff, but I think they sent them a notice yesterday saying that they’re officially trespassed from the store.” He had signed every LEGO set on the shelves that morning, he said, two hours of it, and the tagline on the wall was the one his channel has used since a story this site reported in August: “We do not steal from old people.”
Saturday
The store is open until 8 tonight and 10 to 8 on Sunday at 8110 S Houghton Rd STE 162, Tucson. A Tucson home-inspection channel, CyFy, posted the address to its local audience from the floor: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the people of AZ. Ben will be here all day today and tomorrow.”
Noon, Saturday, September 12. A U-Haul at the curb, a red carpet to the door, a tarp with the new name stretched over the old sign, and a line. Total AFOL went live first, with BJC Live beside him: “We are in Tucson, Arizona right now, live at the opening of Reckless Bricks. It’s a former Bricks and Minifigs store as of yesterday, basically.” He turned the camera to the sign, then to the crowd: “Within one minute of opening. Yes, one minute. Lines out the door.” The line was older than the opening. “Before we opened the door and cut the ribbon or everything, everybody was like lined up outside,” a woman the host introduced as Missy, one of the store’s co-owners, told him. “Isn’t that crazy?” Nobody had advertised it. “It was actually under wraps, so we didn’t tell pretty much anybody,” someone off camera told the stream, “and then the media’s here now.” The host: “This is like zero advertising.” The host handed Schneider the stream as the register rang for the first time. “They’re making the first sale right now. Let’s see what they buy. The first sale is a T-shirt. It’s not even a LEGO.” On the wall, merchandise mocked BAM’s chief executive by name.
Sheldon Norcross streamed from the same floor as “Lego part 4 live!!” “This is our store. We have been working on this for months,” he told his chat. “We made our own store. This was way harder than you guys probably think.” A minute later, to a viewer who arrived late: “This is Ben’s store. Reckless Bricks.” Near the end he asked on air where to send people: “Hey, Ben, can I tell chat where it’s at?” The answer was the name BAM gave the store. “We’re in Tucson, Arizona. Southeast Tucson.”
BJC Live streamed separately as “Reckless Ben Part 4 - Reckless Bricks.” In CyFy’s photographs from the floor, Schneider wears a Reckless Bricks apron over a Bricks & Minifigs T-shirt. “The news is here,” the Total AFOL host said. “The real news is here.” Nothing had aired by Saturday afternoon. On BAM’s Exhibit F the outlet at this address belongs to Theodore and Ingrid Roberts. On Saturday afternoon BAM’s locator still called it Southeast Tucson. The people streaming from inside called it “our store” and “Ben’s store,” Schneider called it the owner’s, and its website calls it veteran-owned.
What BAM’s own contract says about leaving
BAM’s franchise agreement, the form attached to its 2026 disclosure, spends three pages on the way out. Take down the signs and deliver them to BAM. Stop using the marks. Never again “identify yourself or any business as a current or former Bricks & Minifigs® stores.” Return the operations manual. Then stay out of the business:
Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, you agree that, for a period of two (2) years (or three (3) years if we purchase your Store as provided below), commencing on the effective date of termination, neither you nor any of your owners, principals, members or partners … will directly or indirectly own a legal or beneficial interest in, or render services or give advice to: (1) any Competitive Business operating in the Territory; (2) any Competitive Business operating within a radius of five miles of any Bricks & Minifigs® stores in operation or under construction on the effective date of termination or expiration; (3) any entity which grants franchises, licenses or other interests to others to operate any Competitive Business.
A “Competitive Business,” in the same contract, is “any business in which Lego® only brand products constitutes more than 20% of its revenues.” Item 17 of the disclosure document is where a franchisor summarizes its own contract for the buyer, and BAM’s summary of this clause reads: “no interest in Competing Business for 3 years within 25 miles of any company owned outlet or other franchises.” Two years and five miles in the contract; three years and 25 miles in the summary of the contract. BAM’s disclosure and BAM’s agreement disagree about how far its former owners have to stay away, and every owner who signed got both.
The other door out is the one BAM sells. An owner who transfers the store to a buyer pays BAM a $30,000 transfer fee, the buyer pays a $10,000 training fee, and if the buyer came from BAM’s lead database, a referral fee “plus any costs associated with applicable broker fees.” The transfer agreement leaves a blank for “a ___ percent commission on the gross transfer price.” Ten franchised stores left the system in 2025, by BAM’s own Exhibit G; seven of them went that way, “transferred to new owner.” None of the ten changed the sign.
The system this store left
At its August town hall, BAM described a “structured system” to move stores away from “struggling” owners. Schneider’s stream described a struggling owner and what he did instead of being moved. The same town hall’s development chief pitched 700 stores. Its script for franchisees told them to post as “independent franchise owners”, and its chief executive redefined transparency to the same owners. This site has documented that the “independent” stores buy from corporate and that one login runs every store’s website. The store on Houghton Road is the first to take the word at face value: it covered the sign, kept the four walls, and put a different name on the door.
“If this store is successful, then all of the other stores might follow. And so we’re calling this the first domino.”
BAM sued that name on May 27 over what he says about its stores, and the case has been in federal court since June. Four days before the opening, its chief operating officer swore a takedown notice to get this site’s reporting on BAM’s own store-damage study removed. On Saturday one of the stores in its own disclosure put the name on the building. The royalty on it is zero.
Sources. BAM’s 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document: Exhibit F (franchised outlets as of December 31, 2025), Exhibit G (departures), Item 17, and the attached Franchise Agreement, Sections 13 and 15, hosted here. BAM’s store locator and its Southeast Tucson store page, as they read on Saturday afternoon, September 12. The store’s website, Reckless Bricks & Toys, as it read on September 12. The streams: Total AFOL, linked above, Sheldon Norcross, BJC Live, and Reckless Ben, all live from the store on September 12; CyFy’s community post from the store, the same day. The August town hall, reported, reported, and reported. The corporate rail, reported. BAM’s suit against Ben Schneider, the docket.