Welcome to the zoopolium pet store. This is the interior of Lego modular 10218-1: Pet Shop. This set is unusual in that it consists of two separate buildings, the Pet Shop itself and a New York style brownstone walk-up. The Pet Shop building also hosts a two story apartment. The structures combined contain 2032 Lego pieces. The set was released in 2011 and discontinued only months ago. For a glimpse of both buildings, flanking the Legonium theatre, take a look here. The Pet Shop came with a dog, a cat, a green bicycle and the psittacus parrot that you can see in today’s photo.
While you could obviously buy animals in ancient Rome, and pets were kept – think of Lesbia’s sparrow for example – it was not easy to find a Latin word for pet shop. zoopolium was offered up by the Morgan-Owens Lexicon of Neo-Latin, about which I hope to have a full post in the near future.
It was a friend, Kirsten, who came up with the idea of making the parrot talk – that is, repeat back what it has heard. I am fortunate to have good friends who will offer story suggestions for Legonium. Just this past weekend, while we were celebrating our Third Wedding Anniversary, my partner Beth came up with the perfect ending to the suitcase story-line - multas gratias tibi, uxor optima. If all goes to plan, the current Season should wrap up with episode eleven. Who knows where things will go from there?
‘I love you, father!’ Scipio says happ(il)y. Then he hears a strange voice. ‘I love you, father!’ the voice repeats. Scipio and Alan and even the shop keeper turn themselves toward the voice.