Anyone who is an aficionado of muscle and classic cars will tell you that just about anything made by the old Chrysler Corp. -- now known as DaimlerChrysler -- is hot, hot, hot.

Prices for some Hemi-engined Challengers and Barracudas have hit the half-million-dollar mark, with even six-cylinder versions going for celestial prices.

As you might expect, as the "real" car market goes, so goes the collectibles industry. Promotional model cars made in the '50s through '70s -- plastic replicas given by dealers to kids and customers -- now are in the $500 to $600 range if the toy is in peak condition.

If you don't have that kind of bread but still are hankering for some Mopar toys in your collection, check out the latest editions of Johnny Lightning's Mopar or No Car series or the Mopar Muscle Magazine series.

Each has six highly collectible ¹/₆₄ scale versions of your favorite cars, with intricate detailing that is at the top of the class. These tiny cars have die-cast metal bodies and chassis and are unerringly accurate reproductions of the real cars. All come in authentic paint colors, along with tiny emblems, correct hub caps or road wheels and even interior detailing and styling that matches the real car.

In the Mopar or No Car Series, a favorite is sure to be the 1970 Dodge Challenger hardtop. The Challenger was Dodge's luxurious, powerful pony car that competed with the likes of the Ford Mustang. The Johnny Lightning version is so detailed you can read the tiny R/T emblem in the pinstripe.

Equally impressive in this series is the 1967 Plymouth GTX convertible. The GTX was Ply-mouth's top line muscle car, which combined smoking acceleration with luxury features. Again, Johnny Lightning did an outstanding job, providing a silver convertible with aluminum wheels, authentic emblems and graphics.

Others in the Mopar or No Car series include a 1970 Ply-mouth Superbird that features a huge rear deck spoiler with a Road Runner emblem and a semifastback roof line, a particularly nice 1969 Dodge Super Bee, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, a 1962 Plymouth Barracuda and a 1970 Plymouth AAR Cuda.

But hands-down, the most beautiful model, a black 1966 Dodge Charger, is part of the Mopar Muscle Magazine series, Johnny Lightning's most requested group of models. The detailing is on a level that you would expect from much larger renditions of this car.

It's all here: the tiny Charger emblems on the roof and flanks, tiny Charger lettering across the rear of the car, individual bucket seats and a three-spoke steering wheel inside.

Other models in this series include a 1967 Plymouth GTX hardtop, 1967 Plymouth Barracuda, 1969 Dodge Dart GTS, a 1969 Dodge Super Bee and a 1970 Plymouth Superbird.

The advantages to these models is that they are cheap, accurately done and small enough that you can build a sizable collection by investing a relatively small amount of money and space.

Prices for these models vary widely, depending on whether you buy at a hobby shop, a store such as Target or Wal-Mart, or on the Internet. But they usually are no more than $3 or $4, and quite often are a lot less than that.