This is such a wonderfully cheeky puzzle design. A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of putting together Jungle Cats, the 1,000 piece puzzle from Pomegranate Puzzles. This puzzle features several of the iconic B. Kliban cats staring out from among an array of wild fanciful plant life. I loved this image from the first moment that I saw it when it popped up on a local Puzzle Swap Facebook group that I’m a part of.

When I picked up this puzzle, the previous owner mentioned that it was more challenging than it looks, and they were right! I started this puzzle while my husband was out of the country at a conference, so I didn’t have my usual puzzling backup. He enjoys tackling the more difficult sections when we puzzle together, which is completely fine by me! It just meant that it took a little bit longer than it usually takes me to complete a 1,000-piece puzzle but I enjoyed myself regardless.

I’ve been a fan of Kliban cats for a while, but this is my first puzzle featuring them. Despite the heads-up from the previous owner, I wasn’t expecting it to be as challenging as it was. There is plenty of variation in color, large elements with fun textures, and variation in size between the repeating plant elements. However, the repeating plants were a bit too similar, making it harder to assemble them. I didn’t mind the orange cone-shaped flowers because the colors were subtly different, which made them come together reasonably quickly and explains why you’ll see me tackle them relatively early. The rest was manageable, but my progress was slow.

Quality-wise, Pomegranate puzzles are generally good. I think their print quality is excellent, with beautiful colors and crisp artwork. Their pieces are a varied ribbon cut, which is nice because there is usually enough piece variation to allow for shape sorting during the more difficult sections (which you’ll see is what I did a few times when working on this puzzle). I did encounter some false fits, mostly in the purple sky area, which makes sense since false fits are typically found in simple solid areas, textured elements, or repeating patterns. The piece fit is a little loose but not overly frustratingly so, though I also didn’t build many sections outside the puzzle edge so naturally it was less apparent of an issue. Overall, Pomegranates aren’t my favorite brand but mostly because they choose art pieces to reproduce as puzzles which tend to make notoriously hard puzzles overall. The quality is solidly ok. They aren’t bad, but it’s not super high-quality either. Given the usually harder images that they produce, I’d like to see a more random cut for their piece shape and nicer texture and piece thickness.

Some production notes on the video: Unfortunately, there are more flashes of light in this video than I’d like. I know the reason why, but it’s a hard issue to adjust for. It’s something I’m working on, and hopefully, we’ll see less of this as I make more videos. I filmed this puzzle over four days as I assembled it fairly slowly. This is why you’ll notice the camera location adjusting from clip to clip more often than in my usual videos. For reference, I usually complete 1,000-piece puzzles over two days, starting in the afternoon until I have to get my kid from school and then finishing late morning on the second day.

Despite the slow build, I really enjoyed this puzzle. It was a nice challenge and had really cute subjects. I even enjoyed the big purple section. I sometimes find solid color sections to be quite zen. I enjoy shape sorting those sections and then using logic to figure out which piece goes where. I’d recommend this puzzle to anyone looking for a cheeky but spicy little challenge.

Details & Links

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Want to put together this puzzle?

Buy Jungle Cats, 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle here

Brand: Pomegranate
Title: Jungle Cats
Pieces: 1000
Artist: B. Kliban