Reegs wrote:

Sure looks a lot like the Metaluna Mutant.
Yes. As I said in an earlier comment And the design of >that< one was reshaped into the head of the Mutant in THIS ISLAND EARTH.
Incidentally, Bradbury told me that the night he saw CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, Spielberg asked him "How did you like your movie?" IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE was Spielberg's inspiration for that movie--hence the profession of Richard Dreyfuss.