One of my favorites is a figurine called “Agita.” It features a portly snowman holding a torpedo-roll grinder.

“Agita” means heartburn in Italian-American slang.

I also like the painted porcelain “Saugy Frankfurts” building. It’s lighted. That would not be “frankfurters.” The proper local word is “frankfurts.”

Then there’s the Federal Hill “Pine Cone Arch,” another model you can put on your shelf. And there’s one of the Route 146 Rustic Drive-In, too.

I asked Duke Marcoccio how all this came to be.

He’s the creator of it. Specifically, he runs a business out of his home known as MyLittleTown.Com.

He sells dozens of figurines and porcelain village models based on Rhode Island icons. They sell from $3.99 to over $70. Many are Christmas ornaments, and this, he says, is by far his biggest season.

You can get them from his Web site, which also lists a dozen shops that carry them, including Benny’s, as well as ALC Sports and Santa’s Pen in the Warwick Mall.

You may recall Marcoccio’s name from his 15 minutes of fame when he starred in the 2007 season of CBS’s “The Amazing Race.”

“We started out of Seattle,” he explained, “went to Beijing, Mongolia, Vietnam and then eliminated.”

He’s 55, studied art at Rhode Island College in the mid 1970s, and after a career in the travel business, got to thinking about getting back to creative work.

He had been collecting shelf-top porcelain “village” models, starting with a McDonald’s, because he once worked there. He was a Harley enthusiast, and got models of the company’s factory and noted water tower.

Then he got one of a fictitious store called “Gracie’s”, which reminded him of Heywood Farm in Johnson, a country shop on Atwood Avenue where he used to buy penny candy. It got him thinking about doing some Rhode Island items.

Eventually, he partnered with Lemax, which makes mini-villages, and he started in with designs.

Marcoccio’s first local icon: the Narragansett Towers.

That was in 2004.

He marketed it with flyers, post cards, even knocking on doors. It did so well he decided to do a few more.

He made one of Haven Brothers Diner, a Benny’s Home and Auto, and a few Federal Hill scenes including the Old Canteen, Tony’s Colonial Foods, and the Arch. He liked that focus, since he was born on Federal Hill. He grew up in Johnston. One could say Marcoccio has core Rhode Island credentials.

“I love this state,” he says. “There are so many unique factors here. I’ve traveled all over the world, and there’s no place like it.” He’s found there are far more icons than he at first realized, and can’t fully explain it, except that the state isn’t just a place, but a culture.

He went on to create a Dunkin’ Donuts building. He did the Autocrat Building, too, featuring a reference to Eclipse coffee syrup. He feels any business selling Rhode Island lore has to include the state drink.

Marcoccio also did a Del’s lemonade cup, the Navy Seabee mascot, the PPAC marquee and the old Rhode Island Auditorium.

The Rocky Point Amusement Park entrance was a big hit, too.

He’s come up with a few outside-the-box designs. One is called “The Blizzard of ’78.” It’s a sled laden with bread and milk. He’s big on accurate detail, so he added the local paper to the icon — published Feb. 6, 1978. True to the era, it’s the bigger circulation paper of that time, the Evening Bulletin.

He went on to add entrances to the local colleges, including Brown’s Van Wickle Gates.

Then he did a double icon of Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. The Red Sox side shows the scoreboard on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004, when the Sox beat the Yanks in game four of the American League Conference Series 6-4 in 12 innings.

I spent some time on his Web site— there’s a lot there — and asked him about the “Italian Slang” section. That’s the one with “Agita.”

It also features “Mangia” — a grandmother holding a platter of macaroni and meatballs.

He has “Spaccone.” “That’s somebody who thinks he’s a big shot,” said Marcoccio. “So he has all the gold jewelry and a big fat cigar in his hand.”

There’s “Buon Natale” — Merry Christmas — with a Santa figure.

And “Mappina,” which means dishtowel, and features a woman cooking with one draped over her shoulder.

I was especially amused that on a Rhode Island site, he has a “Marco Island, Florida” icon. Marcoccio explained that a lot of people from here go there for the winter.

“There’s even Jolly Cholly’s Funland,” he said. I asked what that was.

He said it was a little amusement park in Attleboro.

“How,” I asked, “do you think of all these?”

“At night,” he said, “you just sit down and think of your past.

So he’s also got Almacs, Crescent Park and the Warwick Musical Tent.

He’s got a dish of three hot wieners “all the way.”

He’ll soon have more Federal Hill restaurants, like Angelo’s and Camille’s, as well as a Newport Creamery Awful-Awful.

I asked if he likes his work.

“It’s a ball,” he said.

So far, he has over 100 items.

Including, by the way, a Buddy Cianci bobblehead.

I assumed that Duke Marcoccio is reaching the limits of Rhode Island icons.

I asked if he expects to soon run out of ideas for more.

He said he is just getting going.

mpatinkin@projo.com