The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Lottery - Did You Get Zack?

We needed a second Cait Sith. I'd already won one in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth lottery, a raffle-like event that kicked off last weekend in a limited number of participating stores. You pay ¥880, pick a sealed ticket from a box, open it up and see what prize you've won. It's a fairly common type of event here, usually scheduled to commemorate a new pop-culture release.

Anyway, we needed a second Cait Sith. My daughter had taken a shine to the blocky, faux PS1-effect figure that I'd won on Saturday morning. Problem was, so had I. So we decided to try and win another, and put our minds to finding the best way of guaranteeing this outcome.

We quickly ruled out robbery, as I only have one balaclava. Instead, we settled on a more scientific approach: we re-boxed the figures we'd already won, exactly as they'd come, and looked for ways to tell the different ones apart, so that we could make the right choice in-store. The figures come in blind boxes, so they all look the same, and therefore you can't predict who you're going to get just by looking at them. Although Cait Sith is a much heavier figure, the boxed weight is the same, as the smaller figures are packaged with a plastic, weighted base that levels the scales. Clever. However, if you give the box a shake, or tap the bottom, the sound and jangling will reveal whether or not you've got a Cait Sith.

We were very pleased with ourselves. And with that, off we went to Lawson.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we fucked it and I ended up having to buy a second Cait Sith off Mercari! All the local stores had either sold out of everything, in less than 24 hours, or just didn't allow you to pick the box you wanted, if you happened to win a mini figure.

Over the weekend, Japanese social media was bursting at the seams with posts from other losers trying their luck on the Rebirth lottery. Once the Americans and Brits had gone to bed, my BlueSky timeline was 90% lottery updates, pictures of unwanted keychains, lucky-pricks who'd pulled a Zack, and plenty of "I'll probably just have one more go" justification-posts. It felt like a 24-hour community event, and I loved it. 

Rebirth hype set to overdrive.

You can find the full gift selection here. The statues of Tifa and Cloud were the main prizes, but the mini figures were definitely the standouts. They're lovely, chunky yet small, satisfying blocks of 1997-looking goodness. The prizes even included a reprint of the Remake lottery figures from 2020, which I coveted but failed to win. No one wants the magazine, or the cloths, and the keyrings are pretty low-effort. The chiptune CD is probably good, if you've got a CD player. But yeah, everyone wanted the mini figures.

Myself included. And I got a few: Cait Sith, Rufus, Shinra Troop, two Cids and finally a Yuffie, which I bought online for about the same cost as one lottery entry. I also accumulated four keychains, a cloth, and that CD. Not too bad, I guess. I didn't get Zack, unfortunately, who is the "secret" insert in the figure collection. Rare enough, and in high enough demand, that he's going for six-times the cost of the other toys online.

I probably spent a little too much on the Rebirth lottery - 10+ attempts, I think - but I'd counter that some of these trinkets will continue to bring me joy for years to come. The mini figures will, at least, though the rest of the prizes are varying degrees of crap. The figures are something to look at on the shelf, or pack away and enjoy revisiting every year or so. I've got a shoe box full of original FF keychains and figures dating back to the 1990s, which I love to dip into every now and again for a blast of nostalgia. Cait Sith'll feel right at home in there.

When I first moved to Japan, I couldn't believe how common and easy it was to buy Final Fantasy merchandise, and you best believe that 2000's-me got a little carried away. After years of expensive imports in the UK, I was ready to let loose. Mini figures, big figures, keychains, and rank-tasting potions - I most certainly partook. Nowadays, I'm just not that bothered. However, the Rebirth lottery resparked that old interest, if just for a weekend, and I loved sharing it with my daughter. We're both looking forward to Part III in 2026, or whenever, and hunting for a Bugenhagen insert.  

You know what, maybe I'll have a couple more tries this weekend. I think we're due a Zack.