Rubie’s Offers Udder Delight to Halloween Fans : Business: When the time is late and you need a cape, who ya gonna call? Batman and Barbie top this year’s choices, but cow disguise really milks trend.

The treat is venturing into the night disguised as the Caped Crusader, the beautiful princess, the comic cow. The trick is finding the right costume to do it.

When the frost is on the pumpkin, the pressure is on at Rubie’s Costume Co.--the largest manufacturer of Halloween costumes in the United States.

Rubie’s sells magic and fantasy to Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R’ Us, Party City and about 8,000 other stores, including local pharmacies. It ships embroidered satin “Princess Bride” costumes to F.A.O. Schwarz--where they retail for about $65--and sends simple $7.99 witch suits to Pathmark.

It makes bib-and-bonnet costumes for infants, Samurai warrior outfits for men weighing 280 pounds. Each of its 230 rubber masks drips more blood and gore than the next. Wigs start with Elvis, go on to Cleopatra and end with Lady Godiva, blond strands down to the floor.

An adult could enter the showroom and not come out for days. A second-grader could go in and never come out.

Rubie’s is serious about Halloween.

The word this year? Two words, actually--Batman and Barbie.

To date, Rubie’s has sold 300,000 costumes related to the movie “Batman Forever,” including 27 different renditions of Batman, Robin, The Riddler, Harvey Two-Face and Catwoman.

And that’s just for children. Adults have nearly a dozen versions of their own.

“The kids love Jim Carrey,” John Kearns, head of Rubie’s design department, said of the rubber-faced comedian who played The Riddler.

Other costumes never get old. This year--Barbie’s 36th anniversary--Rubie’s has sold 200,000 of her outfits in 16 different styles, from “Rappin’ and Rockin’ Barbie” to the traditional “Wedding Fantasy Barbie.”

“Kids want to be pretty,” said company spokeswoman Terry Goldkrantz. “Some things do not change.”

But even Rubie’s can be surprised by a hit. This year’s unsung winner: cow costumes with udders. The company made more than 100,000 for kids, 60,000 for adults.

“Don’t ask me why on that one,” Kearns said with a laugh.

His team has already finished dozens of costumes for 1996, but don’t try to sneak a peek--they’re under wraps until next year’s Toy Show, when they’ll be unmasked to the industry.

“Every year we have mothers coming in--they want the costume we are making for next year and they don’t care what it costs,” Goldkrantz said. “They go home without it.”

Halloween generated more than $30 million in sales for the company in 1994, and demand in the last five years has been so strong that it has opened new factories in Westbury, N.Y., Greer, S.C., and Greenville, S.C.

Just a few weeks before the spooks’ deadline, Rubie’s cutters, seamstresses and packers were in full swing at its headquarters, which is tucked under an elevated subway in the city’s borough of Queens.

It was reorder time. “When it gets close to Halloween and stores need a costume, this is the only place they are going to get it,” Goldkrantz said.

In one row, mounds of orange and yellow tulle were being sewn together into a deluxe “Pumpkin Princess” costume. In the next, a light-gray quilted material was being transformed into a “Robocop” chest protector. Down the hall, boxes upon boxes were being filled with costumes for angels, harem girls, pirates, witches and ninjas.

“I love this job,” said packer Sabie Venkatasami. “Different colors, different costumes every day.”

Rubie’s also rents top-of-the-line costumes for adults. Snaking lines of customers form around the block as the deadline approaches for getting a Halloween outfit that will knock the socks off the neighbors.

“The showroom turns into a madhouse. For us, it’s murder, but they are all having a ball,” Goldkrantz said.

The big question--will there be O.J. Simpson masks and Judge Ito costumes this year?

Assuredly, but not by Rubie’s.

“That’s in very bad taste,” said production manager John Clausen.