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 the 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 appear 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.

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 the player character's stat is at 10 allows that stat to increase to 11. As the Bobblehead counts as a stat gain, if one was below 10 before picking it up, they can't level that stat to above ten via normal methods.