Pentagon Jam

This is the fourth puzzle I played with in the Jam Series. From what I know there are 5 puzzles in the series and they are produced by different sellers, some under different names and using a variety of materials including plastic, wood and MDF board. 

The 5 designs are:-

1. Hexangular Jam
2. Rightangle Jam
3. Triangle Jam
4. Rectangle Jam
5. Pentagon Jam

[Edit 3 Aug 16: I have just been informed that there is a "Yen In The Jam" which was made as an exchanged puzzle for Dutch Cube Day 2014; thanks to Michel van Ipenburg for the info] 

I have already reviewed the Hexangular, Rightangle and Rectangle Jams previously. All were designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa who has produced unique and award winning puzzles like Square In The Bag and ODD Puzzle.  

Like the rest of the Jam puzzles, the object requires the puzzler to remove a single piece (our of several) through a opening slot on the front side of the tray (without lifting any of the pieces off the tray). 

My copy of Pentagon Jam came to me courtesy of fellow puzzle designer and collector Frederic Boucher a while back. You may have come across his works such as Artefacts and his popular Marble Cake. This copy is a "CD Case" version in plastic. In fact, I received 3 other CD puzzles from Frederic as well! This range appears to be retailed by a company called Chronos of Japan.

The Pentagon Jam took me a short while to figure out and like all the Jam puzzles, you need to manipulate the pieces within the tray to make room for the piece in question to be removed. Rotations galore here and I counted about 10 to 11 moves to extract the red piece. But all the moves and the solution for this puzzle are rather elegant. Also, no force whatsoever is needed. It is not easy at all but if you have played with one or two of the Jam puzzles, you will have some idea how to go about solving it. This version is nice and compact and I would assume also inexpensive. Great puzzles the Jam series they are! The rest of the CDs I have are shown in the photos below. I have yet to solve the Triangle Jam.

Yen In The Jam (photo courtesy of Michel van Ipenburg)