Video game modes can be divided into two categories: The first is to add new features and quality-of-life extras to the game. It includes new items, visual upgrades, and more to do. All of this is to improve your game. And there are also mods that add something to the game just for a laugh.
The most popular mods in the second category are probably those that add Thomas the Tank Engine to the game. We saw Thomas replaced with a dragon in Skyrim, and Mr. Thomas in Resident Evil 2. X, we even saw the Automatron in Fallout 4. We have one person to thank for this. This is Kevin “Trainwiz” Brock, the modder who started this trend. But Trainwiz recently claimed that once this trend takes off, legal backlash follows.
Tank Engine mod creator Thomas says Mattel did the hard work for him.
Trainwiz has once again added a mode to the beloved children's cartoon Trains, this time to replace Morrowind's Cliff Racers (thanks, PC Gamer). But he says despite all the legal threats, no lesson has been learned. “I fundamentally don’t see toy company CEOs or media CEOs as people, so I don’t learn a lesson every time I get involved with a company,” Trainwiz told Bluesky.
He elaborated on the mod's Nexus Mods page: “Sometimes I feel like I have to tell a particular joke until it inevitably goes away. No matter how many legal threats, actual threats, black vans with Mattel logos or severed Barbie heads are mailed to me, I will do this. Because I have a problem with authority, especially authority derived from intimidation.”
www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mo… I made a mod that replaces Cliffracers with Thomas the Tank Engine. I fundamentally don't see toy company CEOs or media CEOs as people, so I can't learn a lesson every time I'm involved with a company. #Morrowind #thomasthetankengine
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— Trainwiz (@trainwiz.bsky.social) November 25, 2025 2:22 am
Mattel owns the Thoma IP, and considering it's an adorable children's cartoon, there's probably going to be an issue with tank engines spitting fire, chasing you down dark hallways, and even brutally murdering you. Trainwiz seems to have been dealing with the repercussions for a while, as he said in a 2019 interview that Mattel had been pursuing him for a while.
Apparently that hasn't stopped the modder, as he's added Thomas to many games since then. “I actually made it a few years ago and never released it, but I realized I don’t really care anymore,” he added.
- released
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November 11, 2011
- ESRB
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M For adults 17+ due to blood, gore, intense violence, sexual themes, alcohol consumption
- developer
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bethesda game studio
- publisher
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Bethesda Softworks
