I have just obtained a picture (unfortunately not the puzzle itself) of the Russian 4-layer Master Pyraminx which was developed a couple of years ago:

Jaap,

The puzzle was developed long time back, not couple of years ago. The patent is had been applied for in 1983, and received in 1986. Please see here: SU1232171

There are people on this forum who I promised to send this patent info to, but I forgot about that completely, so here it is! :-)

Dear Aleksey,

Thanks for the additional information.
I have also understood that the inventor is Mr Ordynets from Kishenev in Moldavia.

Geert.

Oops, I called you Jaap! :-)

Nevertheless, Geert you're right, the inventor is Alexander Ordynets of Kishinev, Moldavia. There was an attempt to mass produce the puzzle in middle eighties. There was a sample production run of this pyramid. However, for whatever reason, the puzzle pieces that completely hang over proved themselves to be brittle, and broke a lot. So the production was stopped, and whatever was produced had been destroyed. Some pyramids of that run still got into hand of puzzle collectors who knew Ordynets personally. That's why you all know that the puzzle exists, but no one has ever seen it or held in his own hands. BTW, from the design I don't really see why would those pieces be brittle (the edge triangles of the second layer from the bottom), but that's what I have learned from people who have the puzzle.

Wow, Aleksey,

So does it mean you know Ordynets personally as well? Have you had the puzzle in your hands?

Vadim

Nope! I don't. It happened so that I researched exactly this subject some short time ago, and got a lead to few people, one of whom does have the pyramid. He also sent me the same picture and the one published in "Nauka i Zhizn" (Science and Life) magazine, in the article about Elena Zhukova and her making paper models. Which proves that the Master Pyraminx in the picture is a real one, and not a paper model. I remember there was some discussion of the picture on this forum.