But is it canon?
First reported by Eurogamer, a photo reportedly taken from production on the Fallout show’s second season reveals the return of a dear old friend from Fallout: New Vegas: The town of Novac’s Dinky the T-Rex, the giant dinosaur statue central to one of the game’s best companions and his first quest. Spoilers for Fallout season one ahoy.
The photo in question was shared by user FeuTarse to the Fallout subreddit, though it originally comes from the fan account FalloutFanArt on X, “The Everything App”—notably this was apparently always presented as a leak from the set, and not FalloutFanArt’s titular fare. The picture shows someone putting the finishing touches on a large T-Rex head with a clear resemblance to New Vegas’ Dinky inside a cavernous warehouse.
I reached out to FeuTarse, who said that the image was removed from FalloutFanArt’s timeline as well as an independent post on the FOTV subreddit. A previous post by FeuTarse sharing the apparently-controversial Dinky also appears to have been deleted by moderators of the New Vegas subreddit. FeuTarse managed to screenshot the FalloutFanArt Dinky before its deletion, and Dinky’s reveal follows other, similar leaks of New Vegas-related props and set dressing onto social media.
For a refresher on Dinky—or even just so I can remind myself why I’ve been writing “Dinky” over and over again—the celebrated T-Rex is the mascot of the pre-war REPCONN rocket company in Fallout lore, with a roadside attraction life-size statue of the primeval beast serving as the main landmark of Novac, a New Vegas settlement in a pre-war motel just down the road from REPCONN’s main test site. Ex-NCR snipers Manny Vargas and MVP companion Craig Boone take turns watching the road from Dinky’s mouth, and you can also borrow Boone’s hat to help him enact vigilante sniper justice in the memorable sidequest, “One For My Baby.”
A post-New Vegas (the game) New Vegas (the city) looks like the centerpiece of the Fallout Show’s second run. Season one ended with Lucy and The Ghoul having tracked Hank MacLean to the city, whose status following the collapse of the NCR being as of yet unknown.
The Fallout show’s writers have an interesting challenge ahead of them, with a strain of hardcore fan defensiveness of Fallout New Vegas’ “canonicity” having led to a slightly muddled backlash against the show in some circles. Weird fan rage aside, there were a ton of mutually exclusive endings to New Vegas, a lot of people have big feelings about the game (myself included!), and it’s going to be hard to please everyone while also not getting too mired in the specifics of a game the majority of the show’s viewers likely have not played.
At least Dinky will be there for us.
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