The Fat Controller knows all about those bizarre Thomas the Tank Engine mods that have come out over the past several years. At least, he does now, after I showed a bunch to him.
Modders have been splicing Thomas into video games for the best part of a decade. What started as a joke Skyrim mod that replaced the RPGs dragons with giant models of Thomas the Tank Engine has since spiraled into a staple format of the modding community. The childrens locomotive is now the regular, if unofficial face of the biggest triple-A games his bright blue chassis inserted into their fictional worlds with all the subtlety that a hulking steam engine deserves.
That a games central character or antagonist might be replaced with Thomas is no longer a surprise, but rather an inevitability. When Elden Ring released earlier this year, it took less than a month for Thomas to make his way to The Lands Between.
But what does Thomass owner and operator, the Fat Controller, think of his number one engine being used this way? Perhaps understandably, hes a little confused. Keith Wickham voiced the Fat Controller in the Thomas & Friends TV show for more than a decade, but never once encountered the Thomas modding craze.
I showed him clips of five Thomas the Tank Engine mods from various games Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Resident Evil Village, Skyrim, and Elden Ring again, just because he seemed so pleased by that one the first time around. Bewilderment, astonishment, delight we went through it all, and Wickham even offered a mod idea of his own.
Keith Wickham: This is really weird.
The Fat Controller would absolutely hate this. Thomas is out of control and theres nothing he can do about it. They're not on rails, he can't order them about, he can't give them any special deliveries and I assume he's not even in radio contact?
You have been a very naughty boy, Thomas, hed say. You have killed several pedestrians.
You have been a very naughty boy, Thomas. You have killed several pedestrians.
I wouldn't fancy driving Thomas around the streets as a car. It's completely ridiculous. It's top-heavy, it's got steel wheels, not tires. It would chew up the tarmac. It would be horrendous.
KW: This ones brilliant. This is much better than the [Cyberpunk 2077] one because its using him in a way thats so ridiculous only video games can do it. A fire-breathing Thomas that is the most absurd thing I've ever seen. It's breathtaking that somebody could do that.
What it is, is refreshing. I spent 12 years doing voices for this series, and it's basically the same thing: the same layout, the same trains, and they're doing the same things because it's for preschoolers. To see them doing other things which they would never do in an official video is fantastic.
Im glad they didnt use the voices, either, because that would have ruined it. It had the Thomas music; that was funny. It is funny. Its properly witty.
I never play video games. I've done hundreds of voices for them, but I've never actually played any, ever. So anyone who spends hours doing this stuff, either they're mad, or you have to admire them for their determination.
KW: If you were a child whod grown up with Thomas, I wonder how many nightmares you'd have about this. You've grown up with this friendly engine thats been nice to everybody, doing them favors, and is the number one engine on Sodor [the fictional island in Thomas & Friends]. Suddenly, hes on top of a mad woman, you cant shoot him, he's got an evil grin and lipstick. It's just insane.
This would be an episode where the Fat Controller has eaten a bad prawn, he's got food poisoning, and he's having a bad dream
It would scare the crap out of me if I was 11 or whatever. It would give you nightmares. And it would put you off women. Youd probably end up with a complex youd get your girlfriends to dress up with Thomas on their heads. It's nightmarish, but again very inventive.
I'll tell you what this video would be. This would be an episode where [the Fat Controller] has eaten a bad prawn, he's got food poisoning, and he's having a bad dream that video would be the dream. She's saying, Let's see what mom has got to show you now, because thats Lady Hatt with Thomas on her head. Hed be shooting his own mother. It would be his nightmare. If that was inserted in an episode of Thomas as it stands, youd have the Fat Controller waking up sweating at the end of it.
KW: How many games have I seen like this?
So Thomas is flying in to save this guy from having his head cut off, and there's some freight trucks around. Was he, what, a dragon before? Well, he's already got a boiler and a fire, and after all these years knocking about one island he must be mad. He must be completely crazy by now.
Do gamers like this stuff? Do they enjoy it? Do they find it off-putting? Would they prefer dragons? I think this is very funny. Putting him in another situation is witty. He doesn't talk, which is good. Although that might be funnier. Instead of a roar, Thomass voice came out.
If that was the Fat Controller [with his head on the axe block], that would be fantastic. You have been a very useful engine, he would say. You have saved my life today, and I therefore give you the freedom of the island. How the hell the Fat Controller would ever get in that situation is another matter. How would he ever get to the point of having his head cut off?
KW: Thats very clever. Five minutes of that and Thomas would be in the repair shed. His wheels would be coming off and the Fat Controller would be angry because the budget would be overspent.
If Sodor looked like that, Im sure thered be a lot more very weird kids around.
He would be very angry at Thomas straight off the bat because he's off his tracks, he's not doing what he's told, and he's damaging himself by fighting. I don't know what hed think of the knight. Hed probably dismiss him, just push him off the island into the water. I don't think hed be angry. How dare you, Thomas, let this knight ride you if youll pardon the expression.
If Sodor looked like that, Im sure thered be a lot more very weird kids around. Youve got people hanging up on crosses. It could be a bit of Sodor that no ones ever seen. If you go through the Fat Controllers house and through the wardrobe, thats what you'll get. It's not Narnia, its a hideous nightmare land peopled by weird knights and Thomas.
TRG: Which of the Thomas mods was your favorite?
KW: It was the scary lady [Resident Evil Village]. Because it was a character. All the others are just using Thomas as a vehicle of some description, but she was actually a character. It was quite scary in a weird, psychological way.
TRG: If you were to make a Thomas mod, what would you create?
KW: I would make an entire game based on the engines of Sodor. But instead of them helping each other and the Fat Controller telling them to do things, they'd fight. Thomas & Friends: Battlezone.
Maybe it's an argument between the engine drivers. Of course, theyve got diesels as well. They hate the diesels. Diesel One would be running after them, probably with a hood on; the angel of death. I might play that game provided my voice was in it.
The Fat Controller would be the Overlord. Hed be huge in that game. Hed probably have a stick of fire or something. If you're going to make a game like that, I think he could probably pull himself up to 50 times his normal size and come out of the sky with a flaming top hat.
But its interesting. I had no idea people did this stuff.
Read more here:
I showed Thomas the Tank Engine mods to the real Fat Controller and changed his life - TechRadar
- Cities Skylines 2 goes full Cyberpunk 2077 in stunning new city building game coming to Steam - PCGamesN - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Player Finds Hidden Message in the Game - GameRant - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Dystopika is a chill city-builder where you can create the cyberpunk cityscape of your dreams - Gamesradar - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Make the Night City of your dreams with this cyberpunk city sandbox builder - Rock Paper Shotgun - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Metallic Rouge is a cyberpunk mystery worth unraveling - Polygon - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk devs promise new patch to sort out most common remaining issues - ReadWrite - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- New Cyberpunk 2077 Patch Inbound; Will Fix Finisher Animations and More Reported Issues - Wccftech - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Hidden Cyberpunk 2077 Detail May Reveal The Location Of Cyberpunk 2 (Orion) - Screen Rant - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Ruiner devs reportedly lay off over half of studio behind cyberpunk shooter - Rock Paper Shotgun - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 sequel is in the "conceptual phase," but might ramp up production this year as its devs consider ... - Gamesradar - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 publisher giving away one of gaming's most controversial titles free - GAMINGbible - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld Has Huge Weekend, Sells 5 Million and Overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 in Steams Most-Played Games List - IGN - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- CD Projekt Red Is "Considering" Multiplayer In Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel - TheGamer - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld beats Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 with an all-time peak player count of more than 1.8 million - PC Gamer - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 collides with Assassin's Creed in slick new action game - GAMINGbible - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- CD Projekt latest: next Cyberpunk game might have multiplayer, Witcher 4 enters "production phase" - Rock Paper Shotgun - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Witcher 4 could enter production this year, multiplayer being considered for Cyberpunk 2 | VGC - Video Games Chronicle - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel May Feature Multiplayer, as The Witcher 4 Set to Enter Production | XboxAchievements.com - XboxAchievements - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Turbo Overkill is like a Cyberpunk Doom, and it's coming to Xbox - TrueAchievements - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 sequel: everything we know about the sci-fi game - Evening Standard - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld becomes only the sixth Steam game to reach one million concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 in the ... - Gamesradar - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld becomes only the sixth Steam game to reach one million concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 in the ... - Yahoo! Voices - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- The reality of a cyberpunk universe in the real world - Verdict - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 sequel could have multiplayer - Project Orion - Gamereactor - Gamereactor UK - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld Passes Impressive Steam Concurrent Player Milestone, Beats Cyberpunk and Elden Ring - GameRant - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Follow-up to The Witcher 3 will be in development this year - ReadWrite - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Former Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk Devs are Developing a New Game that Could Be Better than Both - FandomWire - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld Beats CS2, Dota 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 to Become the Second Most-Played Game on Steam - Beebom - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- The Witcher 4 Could Enter Production This Year - TheGamer - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld becomes only the sixth Steam game to reach one million concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 in the ... - Yahoo Entertainment - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 collides with GTA 6 in upcoming game you'll want to keep an eye on - GAMINGbible - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Black Friday 2023: Grab Some of Our Favorite Cyberpunk and Witcher Merch - IGN - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Is the Cheapest It's Ever Been - GameRant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition For Xbox And PlayStation Have One Huge Difference - Screen Rant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 story lead casually reveals players haven't found his favorite Easter eggs, so "I won ... - Gamesradar - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- The Best Games To Play on Steam Deck OLED From 'HiFi Rush' and 'Cyberpunk 2077' to 'Street Fighter 6' and 'Dave ... - Touch Arcade - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 story lead "won't talk about" his favourite Easter eggs until players find them - VG247 - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- How To Complete Forward To Death Quest In Cyberpunk 2077 - TheGamer - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: How To Get Inside The Riot Club - GameRant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: How To Get the Warden - GameRant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- You can finally romance the hot French netrunner from Cyberpunk ... - VG247 - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Northland man's custom cyberpunk car to be released as Hot ... - 1News - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Here's Austin Powers Being A Huge Nuisance In Cyberpunk 2077 - Kotaku Australia - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 finally has 'very positive' rating on Steam, 2 years later - GAMINGbible - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Why Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Being the Only DLC is For the Best - GameRant - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: Things You Never Knew About Johnny Silverhand - GameRant - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Bringing A Baofeng Into The Cyberpunk 2077 Universe - Hackaday - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- What is Cyberpunk Genre Definition, Origins & Examples - StudioBinder - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 review | TechRadar - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- More Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC News Coming In June - GameSpot - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 DLC Phantom Liberty gets release window, first trailer ... - February 20th, 2023 [February 20th, 2023]
- Utah band Spirit Machines beats out 7,800 others to have song featured in video game Cyberpunk 2077 - ABC4.com - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- Nvidia's RTX And DLSS3 Cyberpunk Support Demonstrate Why These Features Are The Future Of Gaming - Forbes - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- How to hack the Cyberpunk 2077 Militech Datashard - pcgamer - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- The Last Of Us Updates, An Award For Cyberpunk 2077 And More Gaming News For Wednesday, January 4 - Forbes - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Why Playing Cyberpunk 2077 As A Melee Character Is The Most Fun You Can Have With It - Kotaku Australia - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Win NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU with Cyberpunk 2077 backplate! - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- The best Cyberpunk 2077 mods | PC Gamer - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Best Of 2022: Cyberpunk 2077's Redemption Arc Is A Breathtaking Return To Form For CD ... - Latest Tweet by - LatestLY - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Plenty of Other Hit Games Will Soon Be Able to Play in ... - Latest Tweet - LatestLY - December 18th, 2022 [December 18th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077's First Big DLC Stars Idris Elba - Kotaku - December 12th, 2022 [December 12th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Core Team Moving to Boston to Start Work on Sequel - Latest Tweet by GameSpot - LatestLY - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Hits 90% Positive Reviews On Steam For The First Time - Forbes - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Tips To Break Hearts, Romance Everyone After All The Updates - Kotaku - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 is a revelation with Nvidia's new DLSS 3.0 technology - VG247 - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 is a Strand game with this courier mod - Gamesradar - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Happy Together walkthrough guide: How to complete the side job and more - Sportskeeda - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Has the world finally forgiven Cyberpunk 2077? - Gamesradar - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077: How To Get $200,000+ Right At The Start Of The Game | Corpo Life Path Trick - Gameranx - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- BLIND GUARDIAN Streams Cyberpunk-Inspired Video For "Life Beyond The Spheres" - Metal Injection - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Johnny Silverhand Items Locations Guide - RespawnFirst - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Shares of Cyberpunk 2077 publisher surge after announcing a slew of new games - CNBC - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- 'Cyberpunk 2077' Re-Review: Two Years Later, What's Changed? - Forbes - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077's revival continues as it becomes one of the most popular games on Steam Deck - Eurogamer.net - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Want to play Cyberpunk, Ghost Runner through a set-top box? Heres how 5G will help - Business Today - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- How to Read Shards in Cyberpunk 2077 - Attack of the Fanboy - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Where to Find Nibbles the Cat in Cyberpunk 2077? - Attack of the Fanboy - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Destiny 2: Lightfall is cyberpunk battle when it launches in February - The Verge - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Tower Of Fantasy Will Receive New Land & Character Soon - Bleeding Cool News - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Turn-Based Cyberpunk RPG 'Jack Move' Will Boot Up On Switch Next Month - Nintendo Life - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]