This is my toy Qonto!

A friend has graciously donated his time putting together this for me!  The pictures and comments below are his.  Thank you T.S.! The robot "Qonto" is the sidekick from the television series "San Ku Kai" which became the film "Message from Space" with Vic Morrow & Sonny Chiba. A different robot design is used in the film. When the series aired in France, Qonto was called "Sidero". Here are some photos I whipped together on Photoshop with some copy. It is very hard to find info on the 'net for either the film or tv show (there is also a band with the name San Ku Kai) but I have a feeling that once the movie pops up on DVD -a lot of people who remember seeing the "boat" in outer space (see upper left hand of attachment) will bring about a mild upsurge in the film's name recognition. I think my timeline is right and the tv show came first -but I could be wrong about that. Also -if Sidero appears in the movie, it's news to me. T.S. Hart

T.S. is a professional illustrator Click above to view his web site!

Here is an additional letter from Olivier  6-5-2001

"Hi

My name is Olivier and I'm a French San Ku Kai fan.  I saw your web page on this serial and I wanted to make 2 corrections if you don't mind:
- the movie was released first before the tv serial
- the french robot name in the tv serial is not "zero" but "Sidero" (I think you mistook him for zero, the dog in the nightmare before christmas!! ;-)
I hope you won't be offended with me making corrections on your work! That's all, anyway if you knew where I could find some toys from "message from space", I'm looking for the liabe, feel free to e-mail me!!

See you!!
woogie boogie man"

I would like to thank Olivier for contributing a couple facts to my page.  Before, I was calling Sidero Zero!

Jeff

Links:
A few San Ku Kai toys
A few San Ku Kai pictures (French Site)
Message from Space Music: details about the sound track
San Ku Kai Is Not Dead (French Site)
Internet Movie Database: Vic Morrow
Internet Movie Database: Sonny Chiba