Vault Boy puppet

“What we did.”

The Vault Boy puppet is a representation of Vault-Tec's iconic mascot which began speaking to Vault 77's only dweller over a year into his solitary interment.

The Vault's experiment parameters: One Man, and a Crate of Puppets. The other puppets were all discovered simultaneously. This final puppet was found alone in the box later on, somehow overlooked.

The Boy ultimately escaped containment^[1] and is considered an active threat.^[2]

Background[]

At some point after being sealed inside Vault 77, the sole dweller heard a voice from inside a crate of puppets he previously opened, and discovered a Vault Boy puppet he missed. Later, the King puppet was "murdered" and found with his head ripped off. The Puppet Man asked the Vault Boy puppet if he did it, as he doubted Granny or Reverend Hound could ever do such a thing. Vault Boy told him that not only did he do the crime, but the Puppet Man himself was his accomplice. The Puppet Man realized that Reverend Hound (the sheriff of his make-believe reality) would come for them both and decided to leave the Vault. His initial excursion lasted less than a minute; right after he opened the Vault door, he encountered a large radscorpion holding a car in each claw. He immediately closed the door and decided to "sleep on it."

The Puppet Man was eventually successful in leaving the Vault, and acquired a giant ant named Mr. Pinch as a mount, and was seen riding it with the Vault Boy puppet in hand. He was later captured by two slavers, warning them not to mess with the Vault Boy puppet, as the puppet was crazy and had "killed before". One of the two slavers contemplated whether to make him a slave or if he should serve him as food; the second remarked that he was pretty hungry. The Puppet Man killed the first slaver, Bob, and tracked the second one to the slaver's base, where for the first time, he was called "the puppet man." The fate of the Puppet Man and the Vault Boy puppet is unknown. They were last seen walking away together, blood-stained but smiling.

Over the generations, history largely forgot the puppet, but not the death left in its wake.^[2]

Appearances[]

The Vault Boy puppet appears in the official Fallout 3 webcomic One Man, and a Crate of Puppets, as well as an illustration from the Magic: The Gathering - Universes Beyond crossover.

It also appeared in a stream promoting the release of Fallout 76,

Behind the scenes[]

The following is based on promotional content.

At least two physical recreations of the puppet have been produced by Bethesda.

Physical recreations of this puppet were given out at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2008. These puppets strongly resemble the drawings seen in the comic. This appears to be the make of the puppet in the 76 stream.
777 real Vault Boy puppets were available as merchandise on the Bethesda Softworks store, shipped with limited edition Vault 77 hoodies.^[3] These are more on-model to modern Vault Boy, with a rounder head and a much less prominent nose. His hair is also parted on the opposite side.