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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.

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

Collectors Edition Bobblehead

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 bonuses may 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 all stats raise 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.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Name Location Base ID
Bobblehead - Strength * Megaton: Lucas Simms' house, on the desk in the bedroom (the door to your immediate left at the top of stairs) on the second floor. His house is directly to the right when you enter Megaton. 00038832
Bobblehead - Perception Republic of Dave: In the Museum of Dave, on a bookshelf to the right of the room. 00038833
Bobblehead - Endurance Deathclaw Sanctuary: Inside entrance, down the ramp, on a small platform next to the rotting brahmin corpse. 00038834
Bobblehead - Charisma Vault 108: Cloning Lab, in the middle of that map, on top of a table in a large room with four beds in the central room, south of the clinic room. 00038850
Bobblehead - Intelligence Rivet City: Science lab, downstairs on one of the tables in the center of the lab, next to the lockers. The science lab can be reached through the midship deck or upper deck. 0003885C
Bobblehead - Agility Greener Pastures Disposal: In the office, on the desk next to an Average locked terminal. 000388E5
Bobblehead - Luck Arlington Cemetery North: In the Arlington House on a hill near the center of the cemetery. It is on a shelf in the basement. 000388E6

Skills

Name Location Base ID
Bobblehead - Barter Evergreen Mills: Bazaar, in a dark cave/nook in the corner of the room to the right of Smiling Jack. Jump over the work bench, it's on the right-most shelves. 000388F3
Bobblehead - Big Guns Fort Constantine: CO Quarters (little bungalow), in the basement. It is in an open safe along with some caps, and the ICBM launchcode. 00038906
Bobblehead - Energy Weapons * Raven Rock: On the right desk in Colonel Autumn's bedroom: after you pass the huge door from section 2B to 2C, when two Enclave soldiers come out of the right door, take the left door. 0003892F
Bobblehead - Explosives WKML Broadcast Station: Sealed Cistern, the sewer (manhole cover) behind the station. The manhole cover is tucked into the rocks. (See page for image) 00038930
Bobblehead - Lockpick Bethesda ruins: Bethesda Offices East, second floor: on a desk under a safe, with an active lamp. 00038931
Bobblehead - Medicine * Vault 101: Dad's medical desk. It can be obtained before you take your G.O.A.T., during Escape! or Trouble on the Homefront. If taken this way, it is in the clinic where you speak to Amata. It is in the clinic's back room on a desk. 00038950
Bobblehead - Melee Weapons Dunwich Building: Go through the Dunwich Building to get to the Forsaken Dunwich Ruins which lead to the Virulent Underchambers. It will be in the center of a room near the exit to Dunwich Building mixed in with some cans and bottles. 00038951
Bobblehead - Repair * Arefu: Evan King's house (requires 50 Lockpick, no Karma cost). As soon as you enter, look to your left. It is on the white table. 00038952
Bobblehead - Science Vault 106: After entering the Vault, move downstairs and enter the Living Quarters. Once in the Living Quarters take a left, cross the small bridge in the atrium, then take a right and enter the second door on your left. Follow this hall all the way to the end, kill the insane survivor and cross the room to where the Bobblehead is located. 00038953
Bobblehead - Small Guns National Guard depot: National Guard Armory, sitting on a shelf in the sealed storage room in the basement. The switch for the utility door to access the armory is found on the 3rd floor that can only be reached by going through the Depot Training Wing and Depot Offices. 00038954
Bobblehead - Sneak Yao guai tunnels: Yao guai den, on top of a metal box north east of the big pool of water. 00038955
Bobblehead - Speech Paradise Falls: Eulogy's Pad, on the table right next to the terminal. 00038956
Bobblehead - Unarmed Rockopolis: Slightly north of due west of Smith Casey's Garage, and due north of Girdershade. The entrance (a large boulder) is below a party banner that is lit up at night. The bobblehead is next to Argyle's body. 00038958

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 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, you see 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 there are no Bubbleheads for skills. See the gallery for all seven images and their messages.

Notes

  • In the Vault-Tec headquarters, there is a terminal at which employees before the war could get bobbleheads for a deduction from their paycheck. However, by 2277, the bobbleheads have run out of stock. Furthermore, the terminal also says that bobbleheads can only be bought by executives.
  • Bobbleheads acquired through console commands cannot be put on your 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 your bobblehead stand.
  • Bobbleheads from TestQAItems can not be put on your bobblehead stand.
  • Regardless of where you found the bobbleheads, they are all wearing Vault 101 jumpsuits.

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

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