Critical Hit @shaddy24 - Tumblr Blog

FROM LEGOS TO POLICE CORRUPTION: The Bricks and Minifigs, Reckless Ben and Stolen Lego situation in a nutshell.

Ok. So it all started when a guy named Bryan Mansell went to a lego reseller store called Bricks and Minifigs to sell his 80+ year old fathers lego collection so he can pay for his fathers medical bills. Mind you, this lego collection is all OG Star Wars legos all the way down and worth aprox. 200k.

Bricks and Minifigs, which I will call BAM for ease of time, is a franchise and the store he went to was located in Utah. The owners of said location, Benjamin and Chrys Gorman are not BAM at large, they are just people who signed a contract to go into buisness with BAM under their name as a franchisee.

The owners put those legos of Bryans up on consignment. Meaning Bryan still owns them, but the store gets a cut of that money for selling the legos themselves. It is explicitly stated in their contract with BAM that they can sell things on conisgnment.

Corporate BAM comes in once they learn of the lego collection and takes the store away from the owners. The owners previously had decided to move country for Benjamins job so they had contacted BAM about selling the store. BAM just fucking took it. They sent a guy named Brandon Best (more on him later) to get the keys and kick the owners out. They didnt let the owners take any of their personal property out of that store. Not even their fucking bird. But in the process of this, Brandon does say, on camera, that he is going to take on the liability of the consignment. BAM then puts new people in the management spots of that specific location. Josh Johnson and ...well lookie there....Brandon Best.

The store then starts selling those legos and not giving the money to the old man who owns the legos, saying that they dont DO consignment.

In comes Reckless Ben (Ben Schneider) who is an investigative youtuber. He goes all out to try to get these legos back to the family. Even suing the two new owners in small claims court to get that money back to the family. Which he won BTW. Meanwhile the CEO of BAM ,Ammon McNeff, threatened the old owners of the store, which they have recorded, saying that if they take BAM to court, BAM will drag out the court case out so they can drain money away from the old owners. Even ending the conversation with "if you think this is a threat...well...it is."

His words, not mine.

So Reckless Ben wins the court case. Josh and Brandon now have to pay that money back. They don't pay that money back and in fact, Josh threatens Ben on the phone (recorded) that if he persues this, he will claim Ben stole the legos and SWAT him.

Again, His words, not mine.

BAM, Josh and Brandon close that store so they can get out of paying for those legos.

Ben, not to be deterred, files a second lawsuit. He can't get it to go through until he can prove that he has spoken to both Josh and Brandon about getting the situation resolved. So he does.

He goes to Josh's house. The cops are already there. They pull him over for failing to stop correctly at a stop sign, despite having evidence on their own cop car dash cam that is available to the public saying otherwise. They ash for Ben by name. Ben is NOT driving.

They get off with a threat and a warning.

They then go to Brandon's house. Brandon comes out but says nothing. He looks like hes on fucking queludes or something this man is GONE. He sticks around for a few minutes and then fucks off back into his house.

That part of the court case is accepted. They tried to have a conversation, it failed. Got it in one.

Now they gotta go try to talk to Josh again to get everything sorted out.

This is where shit starts to really go down.

They get to his house. Cops are there again. They get pulled over on suspicion of HEROIN possession. Obviously the cops don't find anything but they break shit and threaten this kid anyway. Hours later, Ben gets home. His lawsuit is accepted. Now he has to serve them papers personally.

He goes to Josh's house again and tries to get the papers served. Four times the cops came by, three times they were like "Oh are these papers real? You arent doing anything illegal. Carry on". Until the fourth time where they, ON CAMERA, confirm with the court system that yes, the papers are real and yes they needed to be served.

So they arrest Ben for tresspassing.

Ben gets off on bail after a week.

He decides to do a go fund me for the family. He brings a huge banner for it and puts it up on the public sidewalk across from Josh's house.

The cops are called again. They know its not illegal to do what they are doing. The cops go back to their car, talk it over, admit its NOT illegal, poorly redact the body cam footage saying that and come up with a convoluted reason to arrest Ben again. So they do on suspicion of stalking.

They try to keep him in jail for a month, no bail. A judge went over the order and decided that it was crazy to do that and changed the order to let him go with bail again. Ben goes home.

THEN THEY SWAT THE PLACE HE IS STAYING ON SUSPICION OF HIM HAVING STOLEN THE LEGOS! Remember that threat that Josh gave Ben? Well, it came true. Ben was arrested again. This time they dislocated his shoulder and sent him on his way when they didnt find anything of note. Still, The kid gets harmed, threatened and bullied for the crime of...making an enemy of this company and those people.

And then the cops issue ANOTHER warant for Bens arrest. This time with no chance of bail at all.

So he flew to Mexico and is right now, currently in Mexico while he confers with lawyers over his situation.

The most fucked up part of the whole thing. Every cop and judge that harrassed him was Mormon. The CEO of BAM and Josh And Robert are all Mormons and every single one of em donate hella money to the Mormon church. Like, crazy amounts of money.

I am not making any of this up either. Like there is body cam footage, there are doccuments, emails, arrest records, court orders, dockets, contracts ETC that tell the story better than any words can.

I am not shocked at all by the corruption happening here, but I am hopefull that this is a thread that can be pulled to its source, that something good might come of how exposed these people and their crimes are by their own blatant assgrabbing tomfuckery.

But holy shit. What a development in the lego collection sphere. BAM seems to be going full force into destroying any credibility they have. Because if they can do this to anyone, they can do this to you too. How do you know if the legos you are buying arent stolen? How do you know theyre going to honor your consignment deal? How do you know theyre not gonna send the cops to break your fucking legs if you express any wish to get your rightfully owed money back from them?

This shit is heinous. Unspeakably heinous.

ambidisastrous

People who work within a system: okay so studies show that the normal system works 90% of the time, but because it’s very bad when it doesn’t work, we’ve set up a process to manage those outliers. We need six well-trained workers to run the system 100% of the time without any serious incidents.

CEOs and politicians, every time: Well i just saw it go right twice in a row which means the normal system which you say works 90% of the time actually works 100% of the time. We’re cutting the team down to one person pulling 18 hour shifts without breaks

ambidisastrous

People who work within the system: so we’ve crunched the numbers and when you factor in cleanup and lost time it’s actually way cheaper to do it with six people —

CEOs and politicians: sure in the long run but i want to get a bonus/to be re-elected next year

ambidisastrous

(once the system fails and everything goes wrong)

CEOs and politicians: blame the workers! Prosecute the person on the spot at the time! Don’t look for systemic issues!!

drdaanvondutch

crustacean-menace

Homework lady: "My dog is barking! 🙂"

The dog:

#video #autoplay #animal

spiribia

the concept of never including women in anything or never liking women in order to avoid misogyny is really funny and by funny i mean a different word

epicallyepicnerdery

tetrafelino

beggars-opera

Everyone in this family is hilarious no notes

dogpuppy

squirrelly-13

they got married btw

visit-me-here-in-wonderland

oh you’re not kidding

wildehacked

things in fic I'm used to people kind of faking their way through writing about:

the city of los angeles

the city of new york

sex

how drinking alcohol works

how getting high works

how a child of any age speaks

how nuclear physics work

how [my job] works

how debilitating being shot in the shoulder is

how hypothermia works

things I have never before seen someone fake their way through writing about, until today:

what french toast is

headspace-hotel

read through the notes on this one trust me

kiragecko

Here's some of the notes, starting with the things multiple people brought up:

SHRIMP COCKTAIL:

banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol

generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is

#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro

And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!

POMEGRANATES:

zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple

thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute

sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.

FRUIT TREES:

zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''

salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE

baander: #cranberry trees

DOUGH/BATTER:

maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre

livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles

lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY

Some other topics:

#long post

the-big-mood

This woman's dragon puppet

#video #autoplay #art

betweenheroesandvillains

petition to make Americans google “euro” before writing fic

supportive-snapmaw

If you can roll up a coin you deserve to snort coke imo

ghstbusting

tag credit to @teashoesandhair

#drug mention

berrytart

okay yeah i do think your filler is off putting and your botox makes you rigid and strange to look at

tomatoinyourgarden

I know you think it’s “feminist” to hate on women who already have self esteem and image issues (through no fault of their own, as a direct result of patriarchy) for doing something to help them cope with their fleeting youth - which may or may not have been stripped from them against their will due to years of depression, abuse, oppression, or whatever else - but the truth is that the freedom to get Botox is actually a right feminists have fought for - whether intentionally or unintentionally. Women used to get thrown away when we outlived our youth and beauty - now we have the option to prolong it and change the way we are perceived and treated by society as a whole. We ALL had to grow up too fast. We ALL have to cope with a childhood that ended too soon. I’m no less a feminist than you are simply because I choose to hold onto my youth and beauty because it helps me feel better about my own loss of innocence. This is all just another excuse to hate on women and tear us down. You’re literally letting the patriarchy win by judging women for their personal choices which harm absolutely no one. Please grow up. Not everyone is conventionally attractive or ages gracefully. Some women can cope with that and some can’t. Both deserve love and respect. Have some decency. You’re not edgy for this. You’re hating just like a man would.

berrytart

Feminists … have fought… for the right … to use Botox…..

#read the notes of this post to die instantly #“the only problem with the throw women away when they get old industry was women didn't have a way to slow down their aging”

questcequecestqueca

She played bass on 10,000 songs, including the most-played track of the twentieth century. She was paid $55 per session. Her name never appeared on the albums.

Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles, 1964. A woman in a cardigan walks past the receptionist, a Fender Precision bass in her hand like a briefcase. She doesn’t sign autographs. She signs a timesheet.

Her name is Carol Kaye. In three hours, she will record what will become the most-played track of the twentieth century. She’ll pocket fifty-five dollars and head to another studio, on the other side of town, for the next session.

The record label will never put her name on the album.

Between 1957 and 1973, Carol Kaye took part in roughly 10,000 recording sessions. Not as the featured artist, not as a guest, but as a hired hand. She was part of an anonymous collective nicknamed The Wrecking Crew—elite studio musicians who actually played the instruments on your favorite records while the famous bands posed for promotional photos.

The work was relentless. Three albums before the day was over. Stale coffee in paper cups. No rehearsal. The charts arrived minutes before the tape rolled. If you couldn’t read a chart and nail the take in two tries, you didn’t get called for the next session.

Carol could do it on the first try.

She started playing guitar in grimy bars at fourteen because her family couldn’t pay the electric bill. Music wasn’t a romantic dream for her. It was survival. It was a job—factory work with better acoustics and lower pay.

But she was faster and sharper than almost everyone else. She corrected charts in pencil while the producer was still explaining what he wanted. In one session in 1968, she told a famous producer his arrangement sounded like a dying dog. She chose her own line. They kept her version.

That descending bass line that drives the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”? Carol Kaye. The propulsive groove of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”? Carol Kaye. The acoustic-guitar intro to “La Bamba”? Carol Kaye. The iconic theme from Mission: Impossible? Carol Kaye.

She invented techniques on the spot, out of sheer necessity. When the bass sound was too muddy for AM radio, she stuck felt under the strings and used a hard pick instead of her fingers. The tone cut through the static like a blade. It became the sonic signature that defined 1960s pop.

Bassists spent years—decades—trying to crack the secret of the Beach Boys’ gear to get that sound. They were studying the wrong people. They should have been studying Carol.

She received no royalties. No residuals. No gold-record ceremony. No credit on the album sleeves. When “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” hit number one, Carol was already back in a studio cutting a soap jingle.

The biggest bands mimed her bass lines on TV variety shows. New York marketing departments decided a mom in classic clothes didn’t fit the rebellious-youth image they were selling. So they simply left her name off the album credits.

For thirty years, almost no one cared. The truth only began to surface in the late 1990s, when music researchers found the same union contract numbers on thousands of hit records. The very documents meant to preserve studio musicians’ anonymity betrayed them.

Think about it. Every time you heard “Good Vibrations,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” the Righteous Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, or Sonny and Cher, you were hearing Carol Kaye. She composed the soundtrack of an entire generation’s youth.

And yet the records still say nothing. She’s now over eighty. She wrote instructional books. She trained countless bassists. She is finally starting to be recognized by music historians who uncovered the truth about The Wrecking Crew.

But she never got what she deserved: her name on those albums. Credit for the music that defined an era. Recognition that those bass lines everyone associates with the “Beach Boys” were, in fact, Carol Kaye’s.

Fifty-five dollars a session. Ten thousand sessions. The most-played track of the twentieth century.

And the world didn’t know her name.

lilliankillthisman

This entirely AI-generated sob story is very poignant but not great history. "Carol Kaye was a brilliant session player, contributing to many hits across an exceptionally long and successful career" is 18 words and I think substantially more accurate.

This review of a documentary about her and the other prolific session players of the 60s music scene gets the distortions across quite well - lots of session players, industry standard practices leaving them all off the record labels, mom in classic clothes or not. The stuff about no one knowing she worked on these hits runs into the fact that she wrote about it herself. The music historians digging out contract numbers did happen - because there was an extensive and very public controversy between Kaye and fans of a different session player, the late James Jamerson, over who had contributed to which records.

The "$55 per session for ten thousand sessions" thing is the most obviously false bit of the post - you think her fee stayed the same between 1957 and 1973? I think it's probably taken from a standard AFM union rate for Motown sessions at some point in the period. But I'll note as a baseline that $55 a session for ten thousand sessions is $550,000. In early 1960s money that's roughly six million dollars today. Not huge bucks for a long career, but it roughly lines up with her saying in the documentary that at her peak she was earning more than the president.

And "starting to be recognised" is a bit much - she turned down induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year and was ranked as the 5th greatest bassist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2020. Which you can find in the fairly extensive Legacy section of her Wikipedia page.

#reblogging this from the notes of the post to get some more accurate info #yes she didn't get immediate credits for her work #but to say she was completely unknown and implying she was poor is inaccurate

rabbiteclair

auto immune disorders happen when the immune system ignores regulatory factors and begins attacking healthy bodily tissues, due to what scientists refer to as "sheer love of the game"

boringkate

You listen to music regularly? Why? Have you even tried quitting? Could you quit? You get music stuck in your head? Wow. You're so ruined and music brained. I bet you make your partners listen to music with you when you have sex. Music addiction has really ruined a whole generation. You know it's not realistic to expect reverb in real life, right? You're probably so desensitized that you don't even feel anything anymore when you hear a bird singing that it wants some fuck.

paradigm-adrift

I don't have a problem with people listening to music per se, but I do have a problem with the music industry exploiting & mistreating artists.

Personally, I abstain from all music in order to keep my hands clean but really music should just be illegal outright to protect musicians from abuse.

terramythos

holy shit this person in the notes

discodyke-dogthing

thewingedwolf

do you think the catholic church effectively utilized wokeness by funneling money into the colonization and rape of the americas after issuing the doctrine of discovery which effectively legalized the subjugation of indigenous peoples?

knivesandteeth

Do you think the catholic church effectively utilized wokeness when it kidnapped almost an entire generation of aboriginal austalian babies?

bugwars

It is imperative that the customer remain unaware that employees drink water, it frightens and scares them to think of an employee as having human needs

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Critical Hit