Reckless Bricks has demonstrated that it will not be silenced in the face of BAM’s continuing opposition.

On September 19 Matt McNeff, BAM’s chief operations officer, told franchisees the Tucson store “will be shut down and will be remaining permanently closed.” Of Sarasota he said: “similar to Southeast Tucson, we will be taking the appropriate steps and actions necessary to protect the brand and to protect the franchisees.” Four days later the lock on the Tucson store was changed. On October 2 an email told customers of the Sarasota store “our Sarasota store is closed.” On October 7 a second email followed, and the name its replies go to had gained a word: “Corporate Bricks & Minifigs Sarasota.” Both stores have now spoken for themselves. The Tucson store’s website reads “New Location Coming Soon” and tells its customers “you have not seen the last of us.” The Sarasota store posted on October 9: “COSMIC CRITTER TOYS IS OPEN!” Neither names BAM. The Tucson website gives no new address and no date.

PRIMARY SOURCEThe October 7 email to customers of the Sarasota store, as a customer of the store received it, reproduced below. The Tucson store’s own website, recklessbricks.store, and the Sarasota store’s public Facebook page and website, cosmiccrittertoys.com, all read October 9, 2026.

CONFIRMEDReported on this site before October 9, with the sources each page gives: BAM’s message to franchisees on September 12 (reported that day); what its West Coast coach said on September 18 (reported that morning); Matt McNeff’s video of September 19 (reported the next day); the photographs of the September 23 lock change (reported that evening); the police records of September 29 (reported October 3); the October 2 text and email to the Sarasota store’s customers (reported that day).

UNRESOLVEDwho changed the lock in Tucson; who sent the Sarasota emails, and whose office “Corporate” is; where and when the Tucson store reopens; what the Sarasota post is answering

Tucson: “You have not seen the last of us”

The Tucson store has been shut since September 17, when a handwritten note on its door said “Temporarily Closed” (September 23).

On September 18 Julie Kuni, BAM’s franchise business coach for the West Coast, told another owner: “That was us. We bought out the lease, closed them down” (September 18).

The next day Matt McNeff told franchisees: “the location will be shut down and will be remaining permanently closed.” When he spoke, the landlord had received one phone call about the store (September 20).

Four days after his video the lock was changed. TJ Roberts, the owner, says he was still the tenant, that the landlord told him she sent no one, and that her property manager told him to call the police. BAM has not said in public whether the locksmith was its (October 3).

This is the top of the store’s website, as read on October 9.

“We will still honor every dollar of store credit and every layaway agreement. Nothing is lost in the move.” Trade-ins, walk-in shopping and birthday parties are paused “until the new shop opens.” The shop page is headed “Online Store Coming Soon.”

The website gives no new address and no date. “A new Tucson location is on the way,” the home page says, and the location page says the store “will post the new address here as soon as it is set.”

DFJ read the notice aloud in a video she posted the same day.

Watch · DFJ · October 9, 2026

“Breaking News! Veteran PREVAILS Against Bricks & Minifigs- NEW LOCATION Coming Soon!”

She reads the store’s notice from its website; under two minutes · YouTube

Sarasota: “COSMIC CRITTER TOYS IS OPEN!”

The Sarasota shop opened as Cosmic Critter Toys on September 19, hours after BAM took the store off its own locator (September 19). Its website bills it as “Presented by Reckless Bricks.” The same day McNeff told franchisees: “We are aware of what’s happening in Sarasota,” and “similar to Southeast Tucson, we will be taking the appropriate steps and actions necessary to protect the brand and to protect the franchisees” (his video).

Thirteen days later a text and an email reached the store’s customers. The email said “our Sarasota store is closed.” It was signed “Doug & Connor Phares, Junior Rodriguez, and the Greater Tampa Bay Team.” Doug Phares sits on BAM’s marketing advisory council (reported here October 2).

It went out under the Sarasota store’s own name and street address, 4047 Clark Road, where the shop’s website listed it open seven days a week. It pointed readers to four Bricks & Minifigs stores between 51 and 66 road miles north. Three of the four belong to Phares’s company. The nearest Bricks & Minifigs, 39 miles away in Port Charlotte, was not on the list.

Five days later, on Wednesday, October 7, a second email went to customers of the store.

The second email is a rewrite of the first, with a new subject line, a new opening and a new sign-off. These are the lines the first email’s claims rested on, and what stands in their place.

This site’s October 2 report quoted three of those lines, “our Sarasota store is closed,” “the short drive north” and “transfer your balance,” and its headline named Doug Phares as the signer. None of the four is in the second email.

One word was added. Replies to the first email went to “Bricks & Minifigs Sarasota.” Replies to the second go to “Corporate Bricks & Minifigs Sarasota.” The email does not say whose corporate office that is, and it is still signed by the Tampa Bay team.

What did not change: the four stores, the 10% offer through October 11, and the last line, “Bricks & Minifigs Sarasota | 4047 Clark Road, Sarasota, FL 34233.” BAM took the Sarasota store off its locator on September 19. The address is the one Cosmic Critter Toys gives as its own. Port Charlotte is still not on the list.

On October 2 this site’s inference was that BAM supplied the customer list or sent the messages itself: they went out under the Sarasota store’s name, and the stores that signed them are separate businesses an hour away (October 2). BAM has not said in public who sent either email.

On October 9 the store posted this on its public Facebook page.

The post does not say what its customers heard, or from whom. It went up two days after the second email, and on the same day DFJ’s video about the Tucson store’s move was posted. The store’s website still gives the Clark Road address. The picture on its Facebook page is a letter board that reads “NEW NAME SAME FACES.”

“Don’t take someone else’s word for it. Come see for yourself!”

Where it stands

On September 12, the day the Tucson store opened, Katelyn Fagan, BAM’s marketing director, told franchisees the company was “taking swift, decisive, and appropriate action” (September 12). BAM took both stores off its locator (Tucson, Sarasota).

Jen Martin, one of the Sarasota store’s owners, has said in public that BAM told her to take down a post and later sent a termination notice (October 3).

Twenty-seven days after that message, the Tucson store is closed at Houghton Road and its website says it is moving. The Sarasota store says it is open at the same address. The latest email to its customers is two days old.

The fair reading, and its limit. McNeff said the Tucson location would stay closed, and the Houghton Road suite is closed; the store had shut two days before he spoke. A website that says a new location is coming states an intention. It shows no lease, no address and no date, and no court has ruled on either store. BAM’s franchise in Sarasota has ended, so “closed” was true of the franchise, and BAM’s agreement reserves its right to market anywhere. Marketing emails are rewritten between sends, a reply name is whatever the sender types, “Corporate” does not say BAM, and BAM has not said in public that it sent either one. The Sarasota post names no one and does not say what it answers. None of this says who changed the lock in Tucson. The right of reply is open to BAM, to Doug Phares, Connor Phares and Junior Rodriguez, and to both stores.

The record

The Tucson store’s website. The Sarasota store’s Facebook page. The Sarasota store’s website. DFJ’s video of October 9. October 3: the Tucson lock and the police report. October 3: Jen Martin’s post. October 2: the first messages to Sarasota’s customers. September 23: the lock change. September 20: McNeff’s video. September 19: Sarasota opens. September 18: the coach. September 12: Tucson opens. The Tucson streams. The Sarasota streams.

Sources. recklessbricks.store, the home, location and shop pages, read October 9, 2026, quoted verbatim. The email of October 7, 2026, as received by a customer of the Sarasota store, and the email of October 2 as this site published it that day. The public Facebook page of Cosmic Critter Toys, post of October 9, 2026, and cosmiccrittertoys.com, read the same day. DFJ, “Breaking News! Veteran PREVAILS Against Bricks & Minifigs- NEW LOCATION Coming Soon!”, YouTube, October 9, 2026. This site’s reporting of September 12 through October 3, linked above. Everyone named here is presumed to have acted lawfully.

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