Haynes engine kits have shit controllers

[FraserKing]

Thought I'd jump online after Xmas and see how things are goin on the forums.
Got me neighbour's kid a Haynes engine kit (little plastic model of an inline 4 cylinder off of ebay) and it's got everything in it - even a little distributor to make little bulbs light up like spark plugs.
Worked great about 3-4 times and then somethin goes wrong he tells me, the motor and the plugs won't turn and light up respectively.
Take the controller, unscrew the bottom and it's got a little pea-sized black spot right in the middle of the circuit board that is 2.5cm square (I kid you not) which is basically the board controller for the timer and supplies amps from the 2 AA batteries towards the motor and lights.
Put two fresh AAs in the compartment, hook up the multimeter to the button input - one push shows up with current and voltage, but it doesn't go past the board.
My theory is that the circuit is just so cheap and such a piece of shit it fails after a few tries.
Going to rewire the whole thing and pulll out the board for the neighbours kid and hope it works.
I'd thought I'd throw this out there and see if youse have the same problem.
--EDIT--
I'm going to take the kit back to Repco today so the fella who sold it to me can check the controller - it's probably a bad one - you do get those - I'm assuming the carnts at the company who make this have never heard of quality control - they just want to push as many kits out the door as they can.
--EDIT--
Went to Repco a coupla days ago. Apparently a lot of the kits have bad controllers, and they exhausted their stock of new kits handin out new controllers.
Sent for one, now I'm hoping it works.
--EDIT--
Finally got one and it farkin works. Now I need to order another workin controller for the neighbours kid.