I'm guessing (sorry if I'm wrong) that most of you are too young to remember the eighties...hint: there was no Hoffman, and no Mirra, but there was Roger Decoster!
Mongoose was (as mentioned in one earleir post) a great name in BMX back in the day. In fact, Mongoose was one of THE bikes to own in the eighties.
The best BMX I ever owned was a 1984 Mongoose Californian, strong as hell, light, fairly inexpensive compared to PK, Hutch, etc., and damn near bulletproof.
However, the quality has suffered since the Pacific incident. Supposedly (according to a rep.) they still make higher end bikes but you'll never see them on the shelves at Wal-Mart, and LBS won't carry a bicycle line that is on sale at Wal-Mart. Therein lies the rub.
I would suggest, as did everyone else above, finding another line of bike at your LBS and avoiding Mongoose...UNLESS you find an old "Looptail" frame from the eighties and build that up.
PJBAZ
Rebuilding both a 1984 and a 1986 Mongoose Californian.