I am about to purchase Fallout 1 + 2 from this site, and am wondering as a community what you would recommend to someone who has never stepped into this universe before. Any advice, guides, or just general tips or ideas you could offer would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Read the incredibly detailed all-you-need-to-know manuals provided on this site.
Chock full of information regarding nearly every single aspect of the games. They're well written, entertaining, humorous, and full of back story that will fill you in on the world, not like these skimpy ten page things you get nowadays.
Seriously, half the people that complain about Fallout dropping you in a hostile world with no guide or tutorial or explanations are just losers who didn't read the manual, don't be a loser, read the manual and you won't have any (hopefully) problems.

read manual, prepare your geiger counter, buy enought food and water to survive both fallouts and finaly enjoy that game, its story and black humor is just great. And in case of need, ask there, we will help you.

Create your own character, dont take the premade ones.
Take a trait "gifted", some consider it too powerful, well, it is, that is why I like it so much : ).
Take as great intelligence as possible - I take 9 every time,Agility is also recommended 9-10 is what I take usually.
As for skills, I would recommend tagging small weapons and speech, the third one is debatable...some take energy weapons (like me), others science (which I level up by reading books..), or big weapons or melee..this is up to everyones preference.
First go to Shady Sands, find a rope there, hire Ian and then go to Vault 15 and explore it thoroughly.
READ THE FAQ on this site. There is a recommended setup, so that you have the best experience possible.
Oh and enjoy the best game ever made : ).
I wish I could somehow erase some selected memories and play Fallout again for the first time, dammit......

I suggest Lockpick as your third tagged skill for that initial character when you're getting used to the game. There are a lot of areas in both Fallout 1 and 2 that make liberal use of the Lockpick skill.

Lockpick is very useful, but then again you can find a lockpicking tools plus with high intelligence you can give a lot of points to it anyway...I am playing FO1 right now, I am on level 11 and my nontagged lockpick skill is on 74, which is more than enough anyway. But it is definitely up to anyone's preference..

Tagged it would be twice as much, and that is far more useful, there are locks in several places that have pretty high Lockpick rolls but contain fantastic loot, you can get a Combat Shotgun pretty early on that way.
It's just better to pick than anything else, it'll have more immediate use, rather than say, Science, which hardly applies at all in either Fallout games except in a few specific areas, and even then it's easily boosted without being tagged (as you say Lockpick is) since there are fewer places you can use it anyway, it isn't that useful.
Energy weapons you won't see for awhile, especially if you're a first timer, and doubly so if you're playing Fallout 1, it's best to take the tag perk later on so that you have a more useful skill at hand while you wait for the good energy weapons to start showing up (the only ones that beat out Small Guns in pure usefulness are the Plasma Rifles anyway) if you're going to bother using them at all. Small Guns throughout the whole game are perfectly viable, either way at high skill levels you're going to be pulling off high criticals since your chance to hit between the eyes is much higher.
Energy weapons do come in handy later on, but out of all the skills Lockpick is the most useful at earlier levels.

Alright guys! I bit and purchased these two gems. Wish me luck!

I'd tag lockpick, speech & small guns as those are the skills I found were used the most. Agility is very important for action points, most guns average between 4 & 6 APs to fire and you'll want to get 2 shots a round if you can.
Save often and in multiple slots, it's amazing the number of innocent remarks that can set off a townwide gunfight that leaves you out of ammo, low on health and with a reputation for mass murder.
Oh and if you ever want to look up information, avoid the "No Mutants Allowed" forums. It's the biggest fallout community on the net but frankly the number of arseholes & wankers on there makes it more infuriating and difficult than any potential reward warrants.
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Fun tips for fun times in Fallout 1 and 2:
Join the Thieves' Guild....(Fallout 1)
Become a slaver for fun and profit! (F2)
Remember, wearing Power Armor and wielding a Gatling Laser means never having to say you're sorry!
Steal everything
If someone offers you a job in New Reno, take it!
Don't do Jet!
Mentats make you pro.