Vault-Tec Bobblehead

Vault-Tec bobblehead figures are promotional Vault-Tec items in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. Although found in the game files, Vault-Tec Bobbleheads do not appear in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bobbleheads are only encountered within the Capital Wasteland and The Commonwealth and not, for example, in any of the other Vaults of the West Coast. This may suggest that the Vault-Tec bobblehead range was an exclusive item to the East Coast and not a line of permanent Vault-Tec merchandise. The idea of the bobbleheads being a piece of exclusive Vault-Tec merchandise is supported by a computer terminal found within Vault-Tec HQ. The computer provides a list of 'orderable' merchandise such as clothing and lunchboxes, but when a bobblehead is requested the terminal reports that they are only available to executive staff. However, a letter from Vault-Tec (addressed to the Gomez Family who also appears within Vault 101) can be found in a mailbox in Springvale that says "Be sure to present this letter to your Vault-Tec representative to receive your special, commemorative Vault Boy bobble-head toy!".

Fallout 3
Twenty bobbleheads can be found in the Capital Wasteland. Once found, the bobbleheads can be stored on a Bobblehead collector's stand in the Megaton house or in the Tenpenny Tower suite. Typically, bobbleheads acquired through console commands cannot be put on the bobblehead stand, and do not count towards any of the bobblehead-related achievements. However, bobbleheads created via "player.placeatme" console command could be picked with a related achievement and could be put on a bobblehead stand. Bobbleheads from TestQAItems cannot be put on a bobblehead stand.

Each of the Vault-Tec bobbleheads in Fallout 3 permanently increases one of the 7 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. statistics by 1 point, or one of the 13 skills of the player character by 10 points. The bobbleheads will not increase a statistic beyond the maximum of 10 (S.P.E.C.I.A.L.) or 100 (skills). Keep that in mind when planning a character, or their bonuses may be wasted. It is inadvisable to max out any S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s before collecting the bobbleheads, as any that are collected afterwards will have the bonuses wasted.

Two of the Fallout 3 achievements and trophies involve collecting Vault Boy bobbleheads. The first achievement or trophy is named Yes, I Play with Dolls and is awarded for collecting 10 of them, players then earn the second achievement/trophy called Vault-Tec C.E.O. for finding all 20 of them.

Bobbleheads, as indicated below with an asterisk (*), can become unobtainable. Please refer to the respective articles for detailed information.

Broken Steel
With the addition of the new Almost Perfect perk that becomes available when level 30 is reached, (Broken Steel add-on required) it is tempting for advanced players to wait until they can use this perk, then collect all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobbleheads. This is because Almost Perfect raises all of the Lone Wanderer's stats to 9, so collecting all bobbleheads after taking the perk makes all stats raise to 10. This requires waiting until level 30, however, which could handicap one for most of the game. One should weigh the benefits of higher stats now (more skill points from high Intelligence, access to various perks) against having a "perfect score" later on.

Point Lookout
In the Point Lookout add-on, several "fake" bobbleheads appear (called Schmault-Tec bubbleheads) during a hallucination sequence as part of the main questline (after getting sprayed with the Mother Punga fumes). These are identical in appearance to normal bobbleheads but are larger in size. They cannot be added to inventory but give taunting, sarcastic messages. For instance, when finding the Luck Bubblehead, it says, "Dead mother, life in a post-nuclear Wasteland and not a friend in it. Yeah, you aren't exactly blessed," When finding the Charisma Bubblehead, there are birthday balloons, and a skeleton on an operating table labeled "Mom." There is a Schmault-Tec Bubblehead for every S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat, but none for skills. See the gallery for all seven images and their messages.

Fallout 4
As in Fallout 3, each bobblehead increases a corresponding S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat permanently by one. Bobbleheads that previously increased a skill now grant a permanent unique perk. Refer to the respective articles for more detailed information.

Taking a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobblehead while your stat is at 10 allows that stat to increase to 11. As the Bobblehead counts as a stat gain, if you were below 10 before picking it up, you can't level that stat to above ten via normal methods.

Behind the scenes

 * The bobbleheads were also used as a Fallout 3 promotional item by Bethesda Softworks and are included in the Collector's Edition of the game. They are similar to the ones in-game, but are shorter and in a generic standing-with-arms-folded pose.
 * Bobbleheads are also used as a promotional item for pre-orders of Fallout 4, this time all the different poses are available, although only one, random bobblehead is issued per pre-order.
 * In the video game RAGE, it is possible to acquire a Vault Boy bobblehead, signifying the company's relationship with Bethesda being the publisher of RAGE.
 * Various bobbleheads are available on the Bethesda store.


 * An exclusive bobblehead was released in Loot Crate's November 2015 box, posed with his hands on his hips and his shoulders back.
 * In the video game Rocket League, it is possible to acquire a Vault Boy bobblehead antenna.

Gallery
Vault-Tec Wackelpuppe Cabezones del Vault Boy Vault Boy Bobblehead Vault Boy Bobblehead Figurki Vault-Tec Bobblehead Пупс Волт-Бой Vault Boy Bobblehead Vault-Tec bobblehead