Thursday July 22, 2004

New Ninco Light Kit

Part #80907

This light kit caught my eye simply due to the fact that it was pre-wired and ready to drop in place. I have wired models before with other light kits, but they can sometimes be difficult to work with due to the soldering involved. When these became available, I knew I wanted to try one.

The front leads are 3 1/2 inches long and the rear are 2 1/2 inches. You can bend the ends to fit as well.

It is about as simple as it gets folks. The package contains very easy instructions that feature the new Porsche, but my classic Porsche was first on the list. It fits almost exactly like the other models too. Due to the room Ninco models have on the inside thanks to the half-tray interior, you have plenty of space to work with.

I simply dropped it in place and began seeing where the bulb ends would go. These ends are easy to work with too. You can even place them at virtually any angle and the light will be just fine. You can of course go through a more extensive procedure such as drilling out the head and tail light lenses, but simply putting them directly behind them worked perfectly. Good old Hot Glue is your best friend when doing this, so if you don't have a hot glue gun yet...you now have an excuse for another tool:) Once in place you can paint the inside to minimize light "bleed". I didn't do this yet as I wanted to show the effects of the lights to their fullest extent. Then just solder the lead wires to the motor tabs and start racing.

You don't have to solder at all if you don't want to. Just remove the motor leads from the front guide and twist the wires there and re-insert them.

The neat about this system is that it does have a small battery and will charge up during the first few seconds of racing. Then if you de-slot, the lights stay on for just a few seconds to help you find your car in the dark:) This also supposed to make the lights more realistic when driving as letting off the brake doesn't effect the brightness. In this kit however there is a slight fade when you let off the throttle, but not near enough to bother me.

The other part I like is the brake lights. When you let off the throttle, the rear lights get brighter and give a great braking effect. I know lights are not for everyone, but I enjoy models that come with them and I have a feeling this kit will help me outfit plenty of models in the future. For $15.95 it isn't that bad of a deal considering the working brake light feature and there is no need for any soldering.

- Harry