
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
A child's block set contains 144 distinct blocks. Each block comes in 3 materials (plastic, wood, metal), 3 sizes (small, medium, large), 4 colors (blue, green, red, yellow), and 4 shapes (circle, hexagon, square, triangle). Determine how many blocks in the set differ from a 'plastic medium red circle' in exactly 3 ways.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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