The off-shore parts were a bust! I ended up getting them from Digikey for a bit more money.
The NE555 parts from AliExpress were all defective, I put four of them in a board and none worked. So I fired up a simple test circuit on a project board and it turned out that only 9 or 10 of the 50 worked, obviously defective pulls. I decided to pitch them all, not taking a chance. I filed a dispute as well, I want my $3 back! 
The 'HC123 parts worked, but as illustrated in previous posts, I failed to consider how much different they would be than the others I was using. I decided to get get more of the Toshiba parts to keep the parts kit consistent. The caps from off-shore worked fine, I got the extra resistors locally as they're cheap anywhere. I also rounded up enough regulators to equip them all, turns out I have a hundred from another build that were left over.
I also found some terminal strips that work in the board, so I'll have screw-terminals for the connections. It ends up costing a bit more, but it's a much neater installation.
I think the final parts are in my mailbox, I'm going to go up and fetch them today. I'll just have to kit up the parts and I'll be set...
