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, you can store the bobbleheads on a Bobblehead Collector's Stand in your House in Megaton or in your Tenpenny Tower Suite. Although they are found in the game files, Vault-Tec Bobbleheads do not appear in Fallout: New Vegas.

It isn't specified who designed them, nor for what purpose, but, it is plausible that they were either toys or ornaments for certain members of the Vault Communities, or they may have been exclusive, special edition prizes given out to various citizens of the pre-War Washington D.C neighborhood. Or they may even have been exclusive to the Vaults- one in each, which have been raided over time, which would suggest that there are more Vaults around the D.C area to be discovered, i.e., Vault 76. This is supported by the presence of the Medicine Bobblehead on James's desk in the medical wing of Vault 101, (though, as he did enter the vault from the outside, he may have brought it into the vault). However, as other bobbleheads are found in some of the other vaults, making the former more likely. 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.

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 your character, or their bonus might be wasted. It is inadvisable to max out any of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. before collecting the bobbleheads, as any that are collected afterwards will have the bonuses go to waste.

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 player's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to 9, so collecting all bobbleheads after taking the perk makes it possible to raise all stats to 10. This requires waiting until level 30, however, which could handicap you for most of the game. You 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 you get 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 the player sarcastic messages. For instance, when finding the Luck Bobblehead, 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 Bobblehead, you see birthday balloons, and a skeleton on an operating table labelled "Mom." Also, the bobbleheads are found in an almost identical order as the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes, and there are no bobbleheads for skills.

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.

See: Fallout 3 promotional items.

Gallery
Cabezones del Vault Boy Пупс Волт-Бой Figurki