The Little Spaceship That Could: Hilarious Starfield mod makes a decade-old callback

On Oct 11, a new mod was uploaded to Nexusmods.com that might just be our favorite totally useless Starfield mod yet.

The mod is called “Really Useful Starfield,” and boy oh boy is it aptly named. You see, this mod does one thing and one thing only—it replaces every single ship in Starfield with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Are you tired of encountering UC ships being attacked by Crimson Fleet Pirates? This mod will fix that. Now, you’ll only ever encounter Thomas the Tank Engines attacking Thomas the Tank Engines. Do you have a ship Hab that you love the interior of, but it’s making the outside of your build look clunky? No longer. With this mod, all ships are created equal, and all ships are created as Thomas the Tank Engine.

There are two types of mods we love—the innovative and thoughtful ones that completely enhance gameplay in every way, and the ones that are just downright ridiculous. This mod is ridiculous enough that it would be worth talking about no matter what, but it gets even better.

This Thomas the Tank Engine ship replacer is actually a callback to one of the most popular Skyrim mods that is nearly 10 years old.

On Dec 08, 2013, a Skyrim mod called “Really Useful Dragons” was uploaded to Nexusmods. Can you guess what that mod did? That’s right, it replaced every single dragon in Skyrim with Thomas the Tank Engine.

10 years ago, this mod was one of the most used examples when people were explaining how limitless the potential of modding is. You would always hear things like, “You can do anything from reshading the sky to replacing dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine.”

I recall watching the opening cutscene with Yarl Ulfric about to be executed and seeing Thomas the Tank Engine ominously flit through the clouds before disappearing 10 years ago, and it’s still just as funny as it was then.

I haven’t tried out the Starfield version of the mod just yet, but I can already imagine how phenomenal it will be. The mod’s author, trainwiz, shared several photos showcasing the mod, and I’ve already seen enough to know that it’s worth it.

One of my favorite parts about this 10-year-old callback is the description that the mod author included on its page, which offers a totally lore-friendly and serious explanation for Thomas’ presence in Starfield.

The description reads, “For his crimes against God and his invention of murder, Thomas was smote, thusly. Rejected from Hell and obviously never going to get into Heaven, they say that the Tank Engine has been banished to wander the stars forever, unable to satiate his bloodlust and unable to find peace in his heart.”

Today, I learned that Thomas the Tank Engine invented murder.