Instead, it seems that Vault-Tec takes Cooper Howard’s image, thumbs-up, and smile and creates the illustrated Vault Boy mascot instead. And so Vault Boy takes over as Fallout ‘s main symbol ...
In a description of the piece (which was quickly deleted), Menze said the image “was unused and the only Vault Boy image to ever be cut from Fallout 2. (I’m sure you can figure out why).” ...