Within the video game series, Vault Boy serves as a representation of the player character's statistical information within user interface (UI) menus, and is a recurring element in Vault-Tec products found throughout the fictional Fallout universe.

In the 2024 Fallout television series, Vault Boy is depicted as having been inspired by Vault-Tec advertisements featuring fictional actor Cooper Howard (portrayed by Walton Goggins).

Vault Boy is a ubiquitous feature in promotional material and merchandising for the Fallout brand, and is regarded by critics to be one of the most recognizable elements of the franchise and the embodiment of its sardonic, retrofuturistic themes.

On the other hand, the developers of the 2001 spin-off title Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Micro Forté, confused Vault Boy with another in-universe element called the Pip-Boy.

Menze finalized an image of a perky Vault Boy kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, and reasoned that his approach was the least offensive way to present an illustration of a literal child killer.

Within this context, Vault Boy is cynically deployed as misdirection to reassure unsuspecting individuals who may be repeatedly manipulated and endangered by experiments which are hidden behind the front of benign fallout shelters.

[citation needed] Critics noted that Vault Boy has achieved a level of cultural impact and viral recognition outside of the character's original context, which was not anticipated by former Interplay staff such as Tim Cain and Feargus Urquhart during the franchise's early years.

[22] A fan theory about Vault Boy was that the character's signature pose is a discreet method to determine whether an individual is within the fallout radius of a nuclear explosion and thus safe from radiation or otherwise.

[20] Matthew Byrd from Den of Geek drew comparisons between Vault Boy and Miss Minutes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, citing them as notable examples of "the Smiling Faces of Bureaucracy, Corruption, and Propaganda", where storytellers co opt retrofuturistic designs to serve as a form of social commentary.

[15] Vivian Asimos noted the popular use of Vault Boy's signature pose in sarcastic circumstances to be a notable example of video game content forming the backbone of numerous internet memes due to its participatory nature.