Vault-Tec Bobblehead

Vault-Tec bobblehead figures are promotional Vault-Tec items in Fallout 3.

Twenty of them 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. Although they are found in the game files, Vault-Tec Bobbleheads do not appear in Fallout: New Vegas.

Equally, as bobbleheads are only encountered within the Capital Wasteland, 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 Washington D.C area, 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!".

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.

Effect
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.

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 Bobbleheads. This is because Almost Perfect raises all of the PC's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. 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.

List
For videos showing Bobblehead locations, see the bottom of this article.

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

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's 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.

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 identical to the ones in-game, but are shorter and in a generic standing-with-arms-folded pose.
 * 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.

Gallery
Cabezones del Vault Boy Пупс Волт-Бой Figurki