Jen Martin’s October 2 post adds two things to the account this site published on September 19: the post BAM told her to delete, and the termination notice.
The owner of the former Sarasota franchise, now Cosmic Critter Toys, posted a second public account on her own Facebook page on October 2, by the time stamps the video shows. Coach’s Archives, the second channel of EchoBase Network’s host, reported it on October 3 beside the customer email this site published on October 2. Her first account, the message she and Jon Martin wrote on the day the store reopened, is on this site in full: nearly three years without breaking even, a ban from the company’s main channel, the months of abuse aimed at her staff. The October 2 post keeps all of that and adds what sat between: their savings and retirement money in the store; a Facebook post about the controversy that Bricks & Minifigs told her to take down; removal from corporate channels after she spoke on EchoBase in August; formal notices, then a termination notice; and her own fear of what the next letter will say.
PRIMARY SOURCEThe Martins’ statement of September 19, published on this site verbatim and in full, with the locator record of that morning; the October 2 text and email to the store’s customers, signed by Doug Phares and the Greater Tampa Bay team, which called the store closed and omitted the nearest Bricks & Minifigs, in Port Charlotte.
AS REPORTEDHer October 2 post, as the video shows it on screen and as Coach’s Archives summarizes it. One line of it is quoted below; the rest is described.
UNRESOLVEDWho authorized and sent the October 2 messages; who had the Sarasota customer list and the store-credit records; and why the customers were not told the store had reopened under a new name.
What the October 2 post adds
The September 19 statement said the store never broke even in almost three years, that she was “banned from one of the primary communication channels within the system,” that her team had absorbed months of hostility, and that the Martins had spoken with attorneys and their landlord long before anyone knew. It did not say how the relationship with the franchisor ended. The October 2 post does. By her account, when the controversy around the brand arrived they were taking anger from customers over decisions they had no part in; she posted about it on Facebook to protect her store, her employees and her customers, and was told by Bricks & Minifigs to take the post down as critical of corporate and a possible violation of her franchise agreement. She then gave an interview to EchoBase Network in August; after it, she says, she was removed from the company’s communication channels. Formal notices followed, alleging violations and demanding they be corrected, and then a termination notice. The money is new too: their own savings and retirement, she writes, went into the store.
The post Coach’s Archives shows on screen is the first of a series she promises. Its closing lines own the choice: she was willing to “say things publicly when almost everyone else with an operating store stayed quiet,” and she owns the fear of what the next letter will say, or whether the locks will be changed. She thanks Reckless Ben and his friends, as the September 19 statement did. The video’s summary of her position matches that statement’s last line: they did not walk away from their business; they made the decision they believed gave it the best chance of surviving.
What the record already shows
On September 19, BAM removed the Sarasota location from its store locator at one in the morning and the store at 4047 Clark Road opened at eleven as Cosmic Critter Toys, the second store to open with Reckless Ben’s backing after Tucson. On October 2, a customer of the Sarasota store received a text and an email saying “the BAM Sarasota store is closed” and offering 10 percent off at four Greater Tampa Bay stores, three of them run by Doug Phares, who sits on BAM’s marketing advisory council. The email identified itself as Bricks & Minifigs Sarasota and carried the Clark Road address where Cosmic Critter Toys was open. It did not mention Port Charlotte, the nearest Bricks & Minifigs to that address. Coach’s Archives reaches the same reading from the same documents, and adds the point this site made on October 2: BAM’s own disclosure document bars franchisees from soliciting customers inside another franchisee’s territory while reserving multi-area marketing programs to the company, so the question is who ran this one.
What the video asks
Three questions, which this site has put the same way: who authorized the message; who had access to the Sarasota customer information and store-credit records, since the email offered to transfer Sarasota store credit to the Tampa Bay stores; and why the customers were not simply told that the former store had reopened as an independent toy store. The video invites BAM, Doug Phares or anyone involved to explain. So does this site.
The fair reading, and its limit. The October 2 post is hers, summarized from what the video shows of it; the September 19 statement is on this site in full and is the fuller account. The notices and the termination are described here only as she describes them. Bricks & Minifigs has not said why it terminated the Sarasota franchise, and it denies wrongdoing in the litigation described on this site. The customer messages were reported here on October 2 from copies a customer supplied; who sent them is still unknown. The right of reply is open to BAM, to Doug Phares, to the Greater Tampa Bay stores and to everyone named here.
The record
October 2: the email signed by Doug Phares. September 19: the locator, the opening and the Martins’ statement in full. September 19: the fundraiser for the owners’ legal defense. September 18: Reckless Ben announces the second store. September 17: Doug Phares and the marketing advisory council. Coverage: EchoBase Network’s interviews. The video on YouTube.
Sources. Coach’s Archives, “Sarasota Left BAM, Then Bricks & Minifigs Sent THIS Message to Customers,” YouTube, October 3, 2026, and the creator’s own description; one line of the post shown on screen is quoted, the rest is summarized with timestamps. The Martins’ statement of September 19, 2026, as published on this site that day. The pages of this site linked above, each with its own record. Everyone named here is presumed to have acted lawfully.