Vault Boy

Vault Boy is the mascot character of the Vault-Tec corporation within the Fallout universe, appearing in their manuals and training films. In the Fallout games, Vault Boy is used to provide an iconic representation of the perks and stats available to the player character, as well as the mascot of the series. In appearance, he is a young male cartoon character with wavy hair (Brown in earlier appearances, blonde by the time of Fallout 3) wearing a vault jumpsuit. His design pays homage to 1950's style mascots.

He is a registered trademark of the Vault-Tec Industries, under the name of Vault-Man, but this official name is rarely used. He is plastered on posters, lunchboxes, merchandise, clothing, and more in the Fallout universe. He was also to appear in an issue of the Hell's Chain Gang comic.

Vault Boy or Pip-Boy?
Vault Boy should not be confused with Pip-Boy which is the name of the (virtual) personal information processor used as the game interface in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout Tactics. Made by RobCo, this device has its own advertising mascot shown on the Pip-Boy 2000 interface in Fallout and Fallout 2 (with pointy ears, red and yellow jumpsuit, red hair). The 3000 model, created under a Vault-Tec/RobCo joint-venture, does not feature RobCo's own mascot.

While the name of the Vault-Tec mascot (round ears, blond hair, blue and yellow Vault jumpsuit) is not present in the original games themselves, he was called Vault Man in the Fallout instruction manual. However, for some reason this name was forgotten - it was never used in any of the following games nor by any developers.

According to Fallout developers Leonard Boyarsky (creator of the character) and Tim Cain, he was always referred to as Vault Boy or Fallout Boy, not Pip-Boy (although neither of these names actually appears in-game, and the Fallout manual calls him "Vault-Man"). The misconception stems from the fact that the developers of Fallout Tactics (MicroForte) confused the two and called Vault Boy "Pip-Boy" (which even ended up being used also by Chris Avellone when he wrote his Fallout Bible).

The makers of Fallout 3 returned to the name "Vault Boy" in the game itself, although confusingly enough he is still called "Pip-Boy" in the trademark legal documents.

Appearances
The Vault Boy appears as a representation of perks, stats and equipment in all games. He also appears in a Vault-Tec commercial on TV in the Fallout intro, in the Vault Dweller training movie in Fallout 2 and as an actual person in a special encounter in Fallout Tactics. He also appeared in Run Like Hell (a game that was also made by Interplay) on candy bars called PipBars.

Vault Boy is on some illustrations accompanied by another Vault Boy who looks exactly the same but with black or brown hair, or with alternative vault boyish things like creature or item. The female counterpart of Vault Boy is Vault Girl. An African American version of Vault Boy appears briefly in the intro to Fallout 2, with his hair fashioned in a crew cut.

Vault Boy Bobbleheads appear in Fallout 3, while a Vault Boy Puppet appears in the One Man, and a Crate of Puppets comic by Penny Arcade.

Behind the scenes

 * The character was originally designed by Leonard Boyarsky, based partly on Rich Uncle Pennybags from the Monopoly board game, and then drawn for Fallout by George Almond for the first few cards and then by Tramell Ray Isaac, who finalized the look of the character as we know him today. Brian Menze is responsible for all new Vault Boy images in Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas. The Fallout 3 images of Vault Boy were drawn by Natalia Smirnova and the Fallout Tactics ones by Ed Orman.

Quotes

 * Leonard Boyarsky (about the image seen to the right): this is the first ever drawing of the 'skill guy' as I originally called him. I did it to show everyone what I was going on about. It was then given to George Almond, who did the first few initial cards (and began the progression from what you see in this pic to the final version). Tramell Isaac (T.Ray) then took over the cards and did the rest of them, finalizing his 'look'.