Tox Box
Tox Boxes are huge metal or stone box enemies that manage to roll themselves along set paths. The paths they go on are usually just large enough for them to move on, making it hard for the player to get by. Tox Boxes first appeared in Super Mario 64.
Tox Boxes have faces on all but one side; the last side is only a square hole. This hole is for the player to stand in as the Tox Box passes over the tile he's standing on, thus letting him survive without being crushed. However, it is still possible to be crushed by the side with the hole if the player stands at the edge of the tile when the Tox Box rolls over him/her.
History
Super Mario series
Super Mario 64
Tox Boxes appear in Shifting Sand Land, the 8th course. They attempt to flatten Mario by rolling over him. The path is a small maze of tiles surrounded by darker, faster moving quick sand that sucks Mario in instantly. The tiled maze that Tox Boxes travel on has a few Red Coins on it, as well as the course's only cannon. If Mario gets squished by a Tox Box's side, he loses three wedges of health.
In Super Mario 64 DS, if Wario is inside one of them and punches, the Tox Box will fly somewhere into the sand and sink, unless it falls in the sand that the characters can normally stand in. If this happens, it simply stays in one spot until the player leaves the level. Tox Boxes also appear in the Super Mario 64 DS mini-game Tox Box Shuffle, where three of them each hide a Yoshi and the player must guess which Box the Yoshi is in.
Super Mario Galaxy
Tox Boxes reappear in Super Mario Galaxy. These redesigned boxes usually appear alongside Thwomps. They only appear in the Beach Bowl Galaxy and the Toy Time Galaxy. In both Galaxies they appear on small pathways, much like they did in Shifting Sand Land.
Unlike the Tox Boxes in Super Mario 64, these ones resemble Thwomps; instead of having the faces spray-painted on, they are carved in in a way resembling a Thwomp's face. These Tox Boxes also lack a face on the side opposite the hole. The hole itself has also been expanded quite a bit, and colored in red to resemble a mouth. Also, getting crushed by any of the Tox Box's sides will result in instant death in this game. Their faces resemble the Thwack's expressions.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Tox Boxes reappear in the Stone Cyclone Galaxy, which is basically a remake of the Beach Bowl in Super Mario Galaxy, but they move faster than they did in the prequel.
Trivia
- The carved faces of the Tox Boxes in Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel Super Mario Galaxy 2 closely resemble Japanese demons or oni.
- The English name "Tox Box", which is derived from "toxic box", was given due to their industrial-like appearance in Super Mario 64. In Super Mario Galaxy, the Tox Boxes lost their industrial look as they were redesigned to better resemble Thwomps. Despite the lost meaning, the name "Tox Box" is still used.
Names in Other Languages
