There is no GUI interface called vmware-toolbox
with vmware player 5 (and other newer products), as per Installing and Configuring VMware Tools:
The graphical user interface for VMware Tools, which is sometimes called the VMware Tools control panel and which is available from the notification area in the guest operating system, has been deprecated
You can however find settings for the toolbox, say "Update automatically", in the graphical user interface of the VMWare Player on the host (as in Player -> Manage -> Virtual Machine Settings -> Options -> VMware Tools).
As for "vmware-toolbox-cmd
doesn't do anything"? You bet it does, read the doc above.