Cat Trial 1: JENGA^®

The Ultimate Challenge Is On

People around the world love to play JENGA^®. Imagine what it’s like playing with blocks that weigh more than 600 pounds each. You can with Cat^® machines and work tools designed and built for high levels of precision. And that’s exactly what you’ll see in Cat Trial 1: JENGA^®!

The challenge is simple: reposition the blocks, one at a time, making sure to not topple the stack. The execution: not that simple… as it takes a great deal of dexterity on the part of some of the most skilled heavy equipment operators in the world.  They take turns skillfully making their maneuvers. They work machine controls. Buckets move. Booms raise and lower. Tires roll. Treads turn. Their equipment rolls forward and backwards—all while tapping, hammering, pulling, lifting and placing the large wooden pieces. In fact, the entire stack we used for Cat Trial 1: JENGA^® weighed in at more than eight tons.

Playing a giant game of JENGA^® puts Caterpillar’s diverse product line squarely in the spotlight. From large and medium excavators like the 349E and the 320E, to wheel excavators like the M316D, to telehandlers like the TH514C and compact equipment like the 277D. Typically that means objects like concrete pipe and road construction barriers, so while it might seem like a lot of fun and games, Cat Trial 1: JENGA^® is truly about letting you see what these machines are capable of.

That goes for the work tools too. These attachments are tailored to Cat machines and the specific requirements of your working needs. Cat attachments enhance the productivity and utility of Cat machines, equipping them for a wide range of tasks and operating requirements. From the buckets, grapples and hammers you see in the video, to forks, mulchers, rippers and so many more, we’ll provide total system solutions for any of your unique jobs. 

This is a celebration how you can get the most of your equipment, by featuring instructors from our Demonstration and Learning Centers, whose “day job” is to provide hands-on and classroom training related to machine operation, application, job efficiency, and safety. Training sessions can take place, either at the Training Centers or on the customer's jobsite.

JENGA^® is extremely popular with more than 90 million games sold worldwide. Watch as Caterpillar brings it to life the way with the original Cat Trial!

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When we play blocks, we play BIG. "JENGA®" pits five heavy equipment operators against a mountain of massive wood blocks - the largest board game ever played with Cat® equipment.

Cat Trials

We always put our products, services, and technology to the test - and the most unique way we do that is the Cat Trials! Find your favorite Cat Trials video here.

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The Making of JENGA^®

Find out some of the interesting facts from the making of the JENGA^® video:

Although all of the operators were excited to be included in the JENGA^® film, they admitted there were some “nerves” in play before they took to the seats of their equipment.
By the time shooting was set to begin, any nervousness the operators may have had was long gone. Each and every one of them wanted to tackle the most difficult maneuvers, because they were certain they could make the equipment do whatever was asked of their machine.
So that the JENGA^® blocks would “slide” out of their slots more fluidly, the crew sprinkled all of them with the same wax used on a shuffleboard table to allow game pucks to slide.
The crew purchased every can of shuffleboard wax available for purchase within a 40-mile radius of the film set—72 cans in all.
All totaled, the JENGA^® blocks making up the stack weighed over 8 tons.
The arena used as the stage for the challenge was larger than two regulation-size NFL football fields.
To capture all of the action, the crew positioned 2 of the 12 Go Pro cameras on the ground, where they fully expected both of them to sustain substantial damage. Remarkably, both cameras missed having any of the 600 pound JENGA^® blocks fall directly on them—one was missed by less than an inch.
The game took approximately 28 hours to play and was edited down to the 2.5 minute video.
To our knowledge this is the largest JENGA^® game ever played.