Reaction of hexadentate ligand m-xylene-bis-(iminodiethanol) H 4 L 2 (4) with lithium hydride and either copper(II) acetate or copper(II) chloride resulted in the formation of two completely different products. Starting from copper(II) acetate the green bis-dimetallic cyclophane [Cu 4 (H 2 L 2 ) 2 (OAc) 4 ].2CH 2 Cl 2 (5) was formed. However, when 4 was allowed to react with copper(II) chloride, the novel hetero-octametallic molecular box {[Li 4 (Cu 4 O)(L 2 ) 2 ](H 2 O) 2 (EtOH) 2 }Cl 2 (6) was isolated. Deep violet 6 can be described as two metallacrown ether sub-units linked together by a central μ 4 -bridging O 2 - -ion. The structures of all new compounds were determined unequivocally by single crystal X-ray analyses.