Monthly Media Recap - June 2025

Another month closer to Halloween!

 

Linked titles will take you to a trailer if you're interested.

 

  

Streaming

 

The Residence (Netflix)

At first glance, I didn't think a murder mystery in the White House was going to be up my alley but I'm glad I gave it a chance. It's funny, has some wonderful characters, twists and turns, and fantastic writing. When it ended, I couldn't help but wonder how people managed to weave it all together.

 

The Continental: From the World of John Wick (Peacock)

I wasn't sure how interested I'd be in a World of John Wick  prequel series but setting it in 70s NYC gave it not so grimy grind-house feel. It's not as bombastic or graceful as its parent but still has plenty of action. There are a couple of lulls in the story and while I was never bored with it, it probably could have benefited from tightening up the B stories. And speaking of John Wick...

 

Star Wars "Stained Glass" Hammerhead Custom Figure

 I only just found out about Plastic Vomit Customs after seeing this post on Instagram from GI Jigsaw. And them I immediately went to PVC's Instagram and order one of these bad boys because it's just something I need in my life.

 

 Way back when there were only 20 Star Wars figures, Hammerhead joined the line up. Like a lot of Gen X, I was the perfect age when Star Wars hit theaters and was instantly obsessed. While I had to have every figure (it was much easier then!), my play adventures didn't stop with the main heroes. I was really into the droids and aliens.

 

 In 1978, we had one sequel novel and about a year of Marvel comics to carry on the story. The galaxy was wide open for making up your own stories, especially if you were a seven year old kid. Hammerhead usually teamed up with the other cantina aliens to form a bounty hunter gang. When you've only got Darth Vader, a "Death Squad" Commander, and a couple Stormtroopers for baddies, you gotta shake things up once in awhile.

 

Out of the initial 20, my favorites were Hammerhead (still my all-time favorite Kenner figure), R5-D4, Power Droid, Death Star Droid, and Snaggletooth. See? There's a pattern! I distinctly remember taking Hammerhead and R5 with me whenever I could. I don't know what it is about Hammerhead that made me glom on to him so much. Maybe it's the weird head, maybe it's the soothing aqua bodysuit.

 

 And that's what brings us to this Root Beer candy looking fella here: Plastic Vomit Customs Stained Glass Hammerhead. He was 3D printed using transparent resin and is gorgeous! He looks so much better in person, but maybe I'm biased.

 

 

Plastic Vomit Customs has a lot of other amazing vintage style 3.75" figures, and not just Star Wars inspired! My next purchse is probably going to be a Sleestak figure! 

 

You can check them out on Instagram. There are links there to their Facebook and eBay pages as well. (Pro tip: stuff is cheaper on IG and FB.) Some of the IG posts are for limited run figures and some can be ordered on demand from their post.

Cauldron - Video Game Review

 Before we get into this, proceed with caution. If you continue reading, I take no responsibility for this game taking over and/or ruining your social life. Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about my latest obsession...

 

Cauldron is an upgrade-heavy, minigame-centric, turn-based RPG. Play minigames to strengthen your party, then win battles to uncover more map, more heroes, more minigames, more everything! If your favorite plant is an upgrade tree, then this game is for you!  

 

Cauldron just released on May 21, 2025. It's got a fun, cutesy retro art style that will no doubt be nostalgic for gamers of a certain age. In the game, you play Nyx, a young witch who, along with her ghost friend Blinkie, set off on a journey to free the land from Darkness. Not just as in the forces of evil, but literal Darkness.

 

This is your view when you start the game. The majority of the map is in Darkness. The only way to unlock more of the map, and advance your adventure, is to battle the monsters in the Darkness. 

 

The three orange (!) you see are mini-games you can play to gather resources which you use the level up your heroes. They can also be used to bribe monsters instead of fighting them but it takes a whole lot of resources to satisfy them. These minigames are where the insane addictiveness of this game comes in.

 

 They are a lot of fun on their own, maybe too much! The resources you gather in each can be used to unlock and upgrade multiple things within each game. Upgrades add new elements to the mini-game that allow you to more easily gather resources...to spend on upgrades. It's this game play loop that will have you shredding hours in one mini-game, forgetting there's a whole world out there to save.

 

And that's the dangerous part of this game...the upgrades.

 

 Each mini-game has its own upgrade tree and they are HUGE. Luckily, it's not that difficult to unlock things as you play. "Maybe just one more round so I can unlock that next thing and then I'll stop." is something you'll say a lot while playing!

 

You could even just be content playing the mini-games and amassing upgrades, but there's Darkness out there that needs to be banished. 

 

The combat is turn-based and you can choose to plan every single action your party takes or leave it up to the auto-battler. I have a tendency to use the auto-battler and set the turn speed to max. Some of the fights have waves of enemies and I just don't have it in me to make a choice every turn for each of the party members. There are behavior options for the auto-battler so you can kind of program how it fights for you. Each member of your party has their specialty, and their own upgrade tree. 

Oh boy, more upgrades!

 

I don't want to get into any spoilers but I'll just say the game seems pretty basic at the start and as you unlock more of the map, you'll find it has more to offer (including more mini-games!). As fun as the mini-games are, a lot of the joy for me has been unlocking a new feature that I had no idea was in the game.

 

Cauldron is a great time! I'm really enjoying how it combines the mini-games with an RPG story and combat. It's even easy to pick up if you just want to chill for a few minutes grinding a mini-game. Putting it back down is another story!

 

There's more than a few YouTubers that covered this game and that's what lead me to check it out. Olexa did an initial video on it and then followed that up with a couple more just on the mini-games!

 

Cauldron is available via Steam and there's a demo available. 

But don't say I didn't warn you...