Art deco sculptures

Art deco sculptures are stylized building decorations, often found on municipal buildings, as well as corporate, military, or upper-class architecture. Several distinctive models resembling helmeted angels and ominous visages were widely standardized and imitated. These pre-War statues were still being erected at the time of the Great War.^[1]

Several such sculptures have been discovered far beneath the earth at locations corresponding with unsolved anomalies or occult activity.^[2] Nine of the ten known buried sculptures are identical to sculptures seen on pre-War architecture, and the tenth is identical to a deteriorated sculpture displayed behind a velvet rope in Atlantic City.

Fallout[]

A smooth face appears in the opening animation of Fallout and in several load screen renders. Similar imagery appears as a feature of pre-War architecture at locations like the Hub and Necropolis.
A large face and torso are seen on the side of a building in the intro, as well as promotional renders. This sculpture is also visible in the ending slides for Necropolis.
The Cathedral is a massive art deco church. A very large sculpture depicting a masculine angel looms above the narthex.
Five figures are visible on the exterior of the Blades' headquarters in Boneyard, burdened by a large sphere, possibly representing the mythical Atlas.

Fallout 2[]

Smooth faces appear in Fallout 2 as pre-War architecture in locations such as Redding.
Each corner of the Enclave Oil Rig is adorned with a large art deco face resembling the urban art deco faces seen in the previous game.
An imposing relief sculpture is used at Vault 8 and the oil rig.
Two pipes with faces can also be seen on the oil rig.

Fallout 3[]

Another smooth face appears in the opening slideshow of Fallout 3. Adam Adamowicz drew concept art for the game depicting faces atop stylized torso busts, representing pre-War political figures in suits.
He also designed several angular art deco faces. One of them can be seen on urban architecture.
Many are affixed to the exterior of Haven, and one looms over the lair of Ishmael Ashur.
Other pieces of concept art were produced which closely resemble the Cathedral angel. These are grouped with art depicting a stylized valkyrie, which can be seen affixed to large urban buildings. One such fixture featuring multiple figures appears in the opening cinematic.
Large art deco sculptures can be seen throughout Downtown D.C.
The head of a statue of a politician can be found in the bathroom of the mysterious plunger shelter, also based on an Adamowicz art deco design. Its stylized shoulder is still visible. The sculpture is damaged, but still appears to be entirely too large to fit through any door in the bunker.
Another Adamowicz-inspired face appears in Broken Steel. This variant is smooth and lifelike, appearing to depict the face of a specific pre-War American, mounted prominently and unrealistically.

Fallout: New Vegas[]

Large art deco sculptures can be found throughout Gomorrah.
A pair of unique masculine winged figures can be seen on the Hoover Dam dedication monument, near the visitor center. One has a damaged face.
- The dedication monument is the only entry on this page which directly depicts a real-world installation.

Fallout 4[]

Concept art was produced iterating on Fallout 3's angular face designs. Several models were derived from this. Their file names include metroman, metrowoman, gianthead, shroudhead, torsoman, and kirbyhead. The model gianthead.obj does not appear in the game. The rest can be found on government architecture.
The metroman sculpture is based on the face modeled for Fallout 3. One is seen buried at the bottom of Dunwich Borers. A long, narrow shaft has been dug directly over its eye. This was the site of a pre-War ritual wherein several bound miners were transformed into ghouls. At the bottom of the shaft, next to the eye, is an altar displaying two mini nukes and the ritual weapon Kremvh's Tooth.
Two metrowoman sculptures can be found at Fort Strong.
Two metrowoman sculptures can be found at the Mass Bay Medical Center, flanking the entrance doors to the Medical Center metro.
The C.I.T. rotunda prominently displays two torsoman sculptures and four shroudhead sculptures.
A metroman sculpture can be found underground in the Fort Hagen Command Center. Another is seen overlooking the Mass Pike Interchange, with trails of rust under it suggesting the appearance of a bloody, mounted head.
A large art deco valkyrie looms over the courtyard of Parsons State Insane Asylum, where Lorenzo Cabot is imprisoned.
Lorenzo Cabot wears a distinctive art deco crown which he claims to have found in the mythical city of Ubar, and which he claims allows him to "commune with the ancient minds that founded our civilization."^[3] The scarab which adorns it can be made into an artifact-powered gamma gun.

Fallout 76[]

Several art deco sculptures can be found commonly at the Mega Mansions in the Ash Heap. The Kirby and torsoman sculptures can be found inside buildings around the Whitespring Resort.
A large metroman sculpture looms over the lobby of the RobCo Research Center. Several torsoman sculptures are affixed to the exterior.
In Watoga, massive angular faces can be seen on the buildings. Scorchbeasts have constructed thick, fecund nests of rubble on top of each. The largest among them is a shroudhead sculpture.
Four of the "corner angel" sculptures are integrated into the fountain in the courtyard of Ingram Mansion, a mothman hatchery.
The Crater, which serves as the Raiders' main settlement, is built in the ruins of a crashed space station. A torsoman sculpture can be found buried in the Core area, wrapped in roots. Creed mentions that the Cult of the Mothman sees the Raiders' turf as their rightful holy land.^[4]
Tanagra Town is a neighborhood which has been lifted into the sky by a colossal pillar of strangler vines. At the core of the pillar, a buried metroman sculpture can be found. The Enclave attempted to establish a field laboratory at this location, but suffered from mental breakdowns,^[5]^[6] and the area remains abandoned.
In the pool past the nave of Lucky Hole Mine, the eyes of the only gianthead sculpture are visible beneath a waterfall. Further into the mine, a line of five metroman sculptures is seen looming over the Interloper.
The Kirby head art deco bust set can be seen at the Ash Heap estates and the Whitespring. It can also be built in player C.A.M.P.s if purchased through the Atomic Shop.
A large bronze lion sculpture can be found in the world and built by the player. This model appears to be based on an art deco lion concept illustrated by Adamowicz for Fallout 3.
Expeditions: The Pitt added two new sculptures resembling the metroman face. One was based on the design seen in Fallout 3. The other can be seen in promotional art for the update. Both are visible on architecture in the Pitt, and can be unlocked as C.A.M.P. items.
An Atomic Shop image for a Grafton Monster poster depicts it between two art deco faces above a player performing the Mothman Found! photomode pose.
The Neapolitan Casino added in the Expeditions: Atlantic City update features several large original art deco sculptures on the casino floor, and smaller versions on the wall. A small metroman sculpture is present in the executive suite.
- There is a very dirty gianthead sculpture behind a velvet rope in the casino, the only use of the model aside from the one in the Lucky Hole Mine.
Art deco heads are found variously throughout the Boardwalk and Muni environments of Atlantic City.
The same update added the Organ Cave, a cultist lair where the eye of a metroman sculpture can be seen through a crevice behind some vines in a tunnel.
Art deco heads are found in the flooded city center.

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare[]

The Print at Home - Art Deco Statues terrain set for the tabletop game Fallout: Wasteland Warfare adds eight art deco sculptures to be used in games as terrain pieces. These are the exact models created for Fallout 4. The set's page features the following text:

“There are many enduring mysteries in the Wasteland: Where do Iguana Bits come from? Who is the mysterious stranger? What does the Institute really want? One 200-year-old mystery that bears closer inspection surrounds the art deco statuary found in seemingly unconnected locations across the Wasteland. What are they? Why are they there? These statues may simply be decorative motifs reflecting pre-war optimism at moving forward into a future unaware that the Great War was just around the corner. After all, they are in keeping with a relatively common architectural style from the pre-war era, but is that all they are? The statues often appear on the concrete facades of buildings where powerful and important people once operated: government sites, atomic corporations, wealthy oligarchs and industrial magnates. These monolithic icons are therefore closely associated with money and power, but many argue that simply speaks to the ego of pre-war design. Contrary to the view that these are merely decorative, there are others who attribute a greater, even religious, significance to them. But now, so long after the end of the old world, it seems we may never discover the truth of who or what these looming overseers were intended to represent. These statues have survived atomic bombs and 200 years of decay, and continue to evoke a sense of wonder for a strange lost age. Regardless of their origins or the intent behind their design, it seems inevitable that more mysteries and powerful people will continue to be drawn to these locations even now.”

Fallout Shelter Online[]

In Fallout Shelter Online, art deco faces and valkyries can often be found at the same places they were found in Fallout 4.
Lorenzo Cabot's portrait depicts him in front of an art deco face, which has glowing eyes.
An event depicts Pickman experiencing a period of lucidity and explaining that his previous sadism was caused by his proximity to Dunwich Borers.

Magic: The Gathering[]

The card "Blasphemous Act" depicts an urban art deco valkyrie.
"Temple of the False God" depicts the Cathedral.
"Dragonskull Summit" depicts the Enclave Oil Rig.

Notes[]

76 RobCo Sconce — Sconce at RobCo formed from metroman model

The Kirby head closely resembles the shape of the Cathedral from Fallout when seen from the front.
The villagers of Arroyo revere a stone head, and have one mounted on their temple. This is the face of the Vault Dweller and is not stylized.
In addition to the metroman face prominently displayed inside the RobCo Research Center, four sconces on the wall are actually formed by inverted metroman models peeking through the wall. The rest of their geometry is covered by a wall fixture beneath each sconce. Additionally, a perfectly-flipped metroman behind the visible one serves to extend the back of the model, so it can rise further out of the wall than the model would normally allow.
The sculptures found deep within caves throughout Appalachia are all contained within the Appalachian Range, a mountain range which is so old it formed largely before life on Earth did. This would imply that these sculptures are of an incomprehensible age, potentially even hundreds of millions of years old.

Behind the scenes[]

The relief seen in Fallout 2 is based on the "Atomic Energy" sculpture presented at the 1933-1934 Chicago World's Fair. The inscription reads as follows:

Energy

is the substance of all things

the cycles of the atoms the play of the elements are its forms

cast as by a mighty hand to become the world's foundations

The Kirby head is named after the comic book artist Jack Kirby.
The tall winged sculptures at Hoover Dam as depicted in Fallout: New Vegas are based on the real-world "Winged Figures of the Republic" sculptures adorning the monument of dedication at Hoover Dam, designed by Oskar J. W. Hansen.
As John Keel observed in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, the Appalachian mountain range formed extremely early in Earth's history, far before vertebrate life would come about, and it is also famously a region which people tend to find inherently disconcerting. Just as Keel tied these primordial factors to the prevalence of paranormal sightings in the area, one could relate this information to the prevalence of buried sculptures found here in the Fallout setting.

References[]

↑ The unfinished wire-and-plate faces at Watoga and the Hornwright Estate.
↑ Partially-excavated art deco sculptures can be seen at Dunwich Borers, The Core, Tanagra Town and Lucky Hole Mine.
↑ The Sole Survivor: "I was curious about the ancient artifact you always wear."
Lorenzo Cabot: "Jack spent so many futile years trying to understand this. I could have told him everything he wanted to know. Through it, I commune with the ancient minds that founded our civilization. Whether they live within it, or it communicates with them through time or space, or whether it simply holds their memories... I don't know. What I do know is that it has widened my horizons beyond the tiny scope granted to normal men. I spent my long captivity exploring the memories of the ancients - their arts and sciences, their philosophy and worldview."
(Lorenzo Cabot's dialogue)
↑ A Vault Dweller: "What do you know about the Cult of the Mothman?"
Creed: "Bunch of psychos in robes. They think our turf is some kind of holy land, and they'll risk death to protect it. That's suits me just fine, I'll throw down with those nutjobs anytime, anywhere. I heard they've settled in over at Point Pleasant. Maybe we should pay them a not-so-friendly visit, you know what I mean?"
(Creed's dialogue)
↑ Enclave research facility terminal entries; cell block C console, Subject C-03
↑ Didn't want to hurt them

[1] The unfinished wire-and-plate faces at Watoga and the Hornwright Estate.

[2] Partially-excavated art deco sculptures can be seen at Dunwich Borers, The Core, Tanagra Town and Lucky Hole Mine.

[3] The Sole Survivor: "I was curious about the ancient artifact you always wear."
Lorenzo Cabot: "Jack spent so many futile years trying to understand this. I could have told him everything he wanted to know. Through it, I commune with the ancient minds that founded our civilization. Whether they live within it, or it communicates with them through time or space, or whether it simply holds their memories... I don't know. What I do know is that it has widened my horizons beyond the tiny scope granted to normal men. I spent my long captivity exploring the memories of the ancients - their arts and sciences, their philosophy and worldview."
(Lorenzo Cabot's dialogue)

[4] A Vault Dweller: "What do you know about the Cult of the Mothman?"
Creed: "Bunch of psychos in robes. They think our turf is some kind of holy land, and they'll risk death to protect it. That's suits me just fine, I'll throw down with those nutjobs anytime, anywhere. I heard they've settled in over at Point Pleasant. Maybe we should pay them a not-so-friendly visit, you know what I mean?"
(Creed's dialogue)

[5] Enclave research facility terminal entries; cell block C console, Subject C-03

[6] Didn't want to hurt them

[1]