They aren't purple 555's are they? I got a bunch from my one machine and was dead certain that I had 32% DOA. Nope, turns out the purple ones have (what I will call) a manufacturing defect. The bottom of the base if flat rather than notched and the wires are thinner.

In the end all of my lights that I got from CT worked. It just took about 45 minutes to get the last 5 purple ones to light up.