Nobody asked, but this Starfield modder delivered—here's the most innocent companion as Thomas the Tank Engine

Starfield companion in a Thomas the Tank Engine skin

(Image credit: Tyler C. / Bethesda)

The Starfield mod pipe has been gushing out bangers, like one that overhauls the UI and another that adds Nvidia's DLSS, but, until today, none of them have inserted the funny blue train that seems to get modded into every videogame in existence: Thomas the Tank Engine.

BulwarkHD has corrected that with a mod that transforms Starfield's most innocent companion into Starfield's most horrifying companion. Thomas the Tank Engine Vasco Retexture is a mod that wraps the nice little robot in the skin of the happy blue train, and it couldn't be more disturbing to look at. The mod paints the lanky robot blue and red and slaps Thomas' unblinking face onto the front of his body.

"That is creepy as f*#@." NexusMods user Tyyphoon said in the comments, echoing any regular person's reaction to seeing the screenshots of Vasco with Thomas' face strapped to his chest. In a reply, BulwarkHD offered a warning: "Thomas is here to kick ass and haul freight, and he's all outta cargo."

You won't gain any benefits from the Thomas the Tank Engine Vasco mod. It doesn't boost Vasco's damage or make it possible to romance him. No, it just makes Vasco worse to be around every time you pass by him as you exit your ship or visit The Lodge.

If you're OK with downloading this nightmare onto your computer, it's simple to install. Steam players need to copy over the mod's "Data" folder into your Documents/My Games/Starfield directory and edit the StarfieldCustom.ini file with the code on the NexusMods page. PC players using the Windows Store version (Game Pass) will have to search their C drive for Starfield's install location and the Starfield.ini file instead.

And so the tradition of Thomas the Tank Engine haunting every moddable videogame continues. He's disgraced everything from Skyrim and Fallout 4 to Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil 2, and he doesn't seem to be hitting the brakes anytime soon. Nobody knows when his reign will stop.

You don't have to suffer, though. Starfield's best mods are far less unsettling and fix a lot of its most tedious features.

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.