Cast of Characters : Batman costumes are tops with boys, while girls have made Belle from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ the favorite.

Angel wings just aren’t in as great a demand as they used to be. Sorry to break the news.

But Beauty-ware and Bat-garb? They’re different stories entirely.

Such are the trends developing around the county this year as residents shop for that perfect Halloween costume.

Bonnie Mihalic, owner of Bonnie’s supply stores in Ventura and Oxnard, can’t explain the decline in the sale of angel appendages, but she’s not surprised at the popularity of the top-selling girls’ costume: Belle, of the animated motion picture hit “Beauty and the Beast.”

“We’re sold out,” Mihalic said last week. “I tried all over the country, and nobody has any left.” The same can’t be said for the Beast. “Little boys don’t want to be a beast, but it’s a cute costume,” she said.

The boys apparently have other film characters in mind. Batman, retailers say, is this year’s super hero of choice among younger male clientele. But don’t think Batman went uncontested.

There are plenty of other vinyl fictional character suits to choose from: Wolverine, The Punisher, Superman (despite his impending death), the Toxic Crusaders and, of course, those green, masked, pizza-eating turtles. K-mart in Ventura also has a couple of the Ninja Turtles’ favorite enemies, Rocksteady and Beebop, for those rebels of the trick or treat set.

In the heroine category, Catwoman has clawed her way to the front of the girls’ costume pack. Mihalic said Catwoman, in fact, is popular with women too.

“But Catwoman only looks good on a tall, slender woman,” she advised, adding that there are a set of costumes available for larger women.

Catwoman has led the way in what has turned out to be a big year locally for adult costume sales. “Halloween is on a Saturday,” said Amy Heff, merchandise assistant at the K-mart in Camarillo. And that, she said, means more parties and thus the need for more costumes.

It’s a good thing then that there is plenty out there to choose from. For instance, there’s the black and white, full-length cow costume that comes with a rubber udder. And there is a whole Who’s Who of celebrity masks on the market.

There’s Whoopie Goldberg, Princess Di, Jesse Jackson, Iron Mike Tyson (displayed in prison stripes by Halloween Adventures), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Boris Yeltsin, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Hope and, yes, George Bush. Di and Iron Mike might be insulted, but at Halloween Adventures their masks sell for $10 less than the mask of a Crash Dummy.

Mihalic said it’s a different customer who will buy a Hitchcock or a Hope mask from the one who will buy a pirate costume.

“People who are more arty buy (the masks), people who don’t really want to wear a costume,” she said. “You don’t find a working man wearing it. A working man still buys the horror robe, still wants to be the grim reaper.” Masked or robed, however, a person’s signature is often in the accessories.

It doesn’t take a great shopper to find a whole cache of lovely torture devices. Thrifty’s, K-mart and Sears are well-stocked with cute little plastic cleavers and butcher knives. (Note: These pretend devices of brutality come in plastic bags with warnings that read, “This bag is not a toy.” The cleaver is, the bag isn’t, remember that.)

And let’s not forget the body parts. Mihalic has found a lot of demand for big ears this year. “For people who want to be Ross Perot,” she said. “It’s easy. They come in and buy a $3 pair of ears.” Bill Clinton? He’s nowhere in sight--as a subject of holiday caricature, at least. Mihalic also has fake muscles that will make the wearer look like a professional wrestler.

Some body parts, though, are harder to figure out than others. “I like the butt better for a chest than I do for a butt,” said one customer last week at Halloween Adventures, trying to make sense of a particular item.

If it’s all just too much to deal with, don’t fret. The Pacific Wave store at the Oxnard Esplanade was selling two T-shirts appropriate for the overwhelmed. One read “Generic Costume,” the other, “This is my Halloween costume.”