The BBQ Counselor raised over $4,000 in less than two hours for the legal defense of the owners of the new Reckless Bricks store.
He streamed the Sarasota opening on Saturday, reading viewers’ messages out loud as they arrived with money attached. Seven of the payments were $500, the most a single message is allowed to carry, from two accounts. The company all of this concerns has not said anything in public since August 19.
CONFIRMEDthe total, over four thousand dollars: read off YouTube’s running tally on the stream, and counted independently by this site from the public superchatsASSERTEDthat it reaches the store owners and their legal defense, which is the BBQ Counselor’s stated purpose for it
The tally
The BBQ Counselor is a lawyer who has covered the Bricks & Minifigs litigation on his channel for months. On Saturday he took the channel to the opening of the second Reckless Bricks store in Sarasota, Florida, and streamed from the floor for about two hours. Near the end he asked viewers to stop sending money so he could add it up.
“Okay guys, let’s end the super chats there. Please, no, no more super chats.”
“Oh my god guys, according to YouTube you all have raised four thousand dollars today for this franchise owner and for the legal defense of franchises everywhere.”
Seven at the maximum
Seven of the payments came in at $500, which is as much as a single superchat can carry. All seven came from two accounts: one sent $500 three times, the other sent 500 Canadian dollars four times, across the afternoon.
And the crowd underneath
Most of the money did not come from the two who maxed out. It came a dollar or two at a time, from viewers watching from Norway, Australia, Canada and Britain, several of whom wrote down that they were giving for franchisees they have never met. Some of it was more pointed than that.
Who it is for
The money is not for Reckless Ben’s federal case. The BBQ Counselor said it is for the owners of the Sarasota store, and, in his words, for “the legal defense of franchises everywhere.” Those owners opened the store on Saturday as an independent toy shop, Cosmic Critter Toys, after parting with Bricks & Minifigs. They set out their reasons in their own words, in a public message this site reproduced in full: after nearly three years they could not get the franchise to break even, and they chose to convert it rather than keep going.
Why this belongs on this site
This site wrote in August about how independent coverage of this litigation stays on the air, a few dollars at a time, from an audience that turns up in every one of these chat windows. That was about keeping channels broadcasting. The same audience is now funding a storefront.
The over four thousand dollar total is confirmed. The BBQ Counselor read it off YouTube’s running tally on the stream, and this site added up the public superchats independently. What this site has not seen is the disbursement, what leaves his account and when it reaches the owners. That is a fair question and it is not answered here.
The other side of it
BAM Franchising has published four times since August 19: on Batman minifigures, after-school activities, getting the most money for your LEGO pieces, and classroom decor. It has said nothing in public about the Tucson store, the Sarasota store, the franchisee it sent notice to, its own store disappearing from its own locator overnight, or the motion filed against its complaint in federal court.
Sources. The BBQ Counselor’s livestream of September 19, 2026, public on YouTube, for his closing tally, quoted above. The superchats reconstructed above are shown in that stream’s public chat and are quoted as written. The Sarasota owners’ own public message and their decision to convert the store are reported here. BAM Franchising’s blog at bricksandminifigs.com for every post published after August 19, 2026, retrieved September 19. Earlier reporting on how this coverage is funded is here.