import numpy as np    
a = np.arange(72)
a = np.reshape(a, (4,3,2,3))

or:

a = np.array([[[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]],[[7,8,9],[10,11,12]],[[13,14,15],[16,17,18]]], [[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]],[[7,8,9],[10,11,12]],[[13,14,15],[16,17,18]]], [[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]],[[7,8,9],[10,11,12]],[[13,14,15],[16,17,18]]], [[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]],[[7,8,9],[10,11,12]],[[13,14,15],[16,17,18]]]])

or:

a = np.array([[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]],[[7,8,9],[10,11,12]],[[13,14,15],[16,17,18]]])
a = np.expand_dims(a, axis=0)
a = np.repeat(a, 4, axis=0)

The problem is that you are creating an array of 17 values (zero through 16), which can't be reshaped to 4x4. Instead:

Use with AI>>> a = np.arange(1, 17).reshape(4,4)
>>> a
array([[ 1,  2,  3,  4],
       [ 5,  6,  7,  8],
       [ 9, 10, 11, 12],
       [13, 14, 15, 16]])

It has to do with padding and alignment in output. It is similar to padding in the printf function found in c or awk, etc. It gives each printed element a width of n where n is {:n}.

''.join('{:3}'.format(x) for x in range(100))

Will output:

'  0  1  2  3  4  5 ... 95 96 97 98 99'

Notice the single space to the left of 99 versus the two spaces to the left of 0. In other words, each number has a width of 3 characters.

You can also accomplish a similar effect using a more traditional syntax.

''.join('%3s' % x for x in range(100))