I have to say, I like Message from Space much better than Star Wars. Sure it was part of that late 70's wave of SW knockoffs and bandwagon jumping in various media, but MfS is goofily entertaining.

Vic Morrow in one of his last roles, Sonny Chiba beating the shit out of the alien conquerers, Sue Shimoi fresh from Toei's Sister Streetfighter as the space princess, etc. Plus the musical score sounds great. I used to catch this on cable every so often in my youth.

From what I've learned Toei later went on to make a Message from Space TV series. They kept the models and the alien conquerers were still called the "Govannis" but apparently they dumped the rest in favor of Power Rangers style action.

I was so into this, but got hit with YouTube Dialup Speed Syndrome. I'm starting to think I'm the only one.

No Kinji Fukasaku tag? Shame on you.

As a child I had a little toy tht looked EXACTLY like the crazy space hag's monstrous green son. Is that some kind of standard monster over in Japan?