Snakes, rodents and alien technology

When I was a lad, the three aspects of popular culture that mattered most to me were, in reverse order of importance: Atari, "Star Wars" and BMX.

I rode a Cobra, a brand manufactured by the Toowoomba Bicycle Company. Here's me on my bike when I was 7 or 8. Pretty sure that was the Christmas morning when I got it.

I never thought much about the name at the time, although because I was the only kid within a few blocks who rode one (there were numerous BMX brands), it did lead to peeps calling me "Cobra" and "Cob".

In hindsight, the serpentine mascot was clearly the TBC positioning itself as an Australian alternative to top US brand Mongoose.

But don't mongeese snack on cobras? According to Wikipedia, infrequently. "The Indian gray mongoose and others are well known for their ability to fight and kill venomous snakes... However, they typically avoid the cobra and have no particular affinity for consuming its meat."

In the end, Cobra didn't survive, while Mongoose did. Today, they produce a range of modern BMXes (that I dislike), and recently released a sweet replica of Max's bike from "Stranger Things". A shop a short car trip away claims to have some of those in stock. It's tempting.

Of course, if I could hang any BMX on the wall to admire and fill me with nostalgia, there'd be no competition -

Notes:
1. Mongeese are rodent-like but not actually rodents, so my blog-entry title is technically incorrect. Yay!
2. Those badges aren't a fair comparison as the Mongoose example is decades newer. Best Cobra badge I could find, soz.
3. I made a million changes to that bike over the years - enough for a far longer post. Maybe one day :-)