Modifiers can drastically change the way an object's appearance in 3ds Max looks. This is especially true when mixing modifiers as you can tell with the original modified boxes (1st image:Stage 1) and the further modified boxes (2nd image: Stage1.1) in the slideshow below
To create the five modified boxes make a box with the edit poly modifier and the Parameters
Length: 20
Width: 20
Height: 20
Length Segs: 10
Width Segs: 10
Height Segs: 10
Now shift-click and move and surround the box with the corners empty. They will now all have the same parameters. The middle box should have the modifier Hair and Fur (WSM) with Root thick moved from 15 to 30. The box to the left should have the Melt modifier with Amount moved to 32, % of Melt to 50.5 and Solidity set to Jelly. the box to the right of the middle box should have the Relax modifier with the relax value at 1 and iterations at 5. The box behind the middle box should have the Push modifier with the push value at 8.66. The box in front of the middle box should have the modifier Squeeze with the Axel Bulge amount at -0.05 and Curve at 2.21, The Radial Squeeze amount at 0.11 with curve at 2.09 and the effect balance at a bias of 0.0 and volume of 100. You can get the 1.1 result by adding one of these modifiers used to any other box.
You can use fewer or more modifiers to give off a similar look to a real life object as well. In the image below, I used the modifiers edit poly and shell to create a realistic lamp shade and just two cylinders and the edit poly modifier for the base.
