Even in this tight economy, long lines of people have been crowding into Lancaster County costume shops this week looking for everything from vampire to superhero to sexy costumes to wear on the bewitching night.

At Spirit Halloween on Plaza Boulevard, a wide range of costumes and other Halloween props are selling fast, said Cindy Mullen, store manager.

"We haven't seen any drop off (in sales). It's been pretty good this year," Mullen said. "We're getting empty, and it's still several days before Halloween."

Pirate and sexy costumes are hot, she said. "We just got another shipment in sexy — called Leg Avenue — and it's selling really well," Mullen said.

Vampires also are really popular, possibly because of the popularity of the "Twilight" series, Mullen said.

Popular costumes for the kids are Transformers, Star Wars and ninja, she said.

"Everything is selling," said Christina Ellis, manager of Halloween Adventure, a new store at Park City Center, which will become Smart Toys on Nov. 10.

Spider-Man, Batman and pirates are big sellers for boys, and girls are mainly Goth, she said. For the youngest children, plush costumes are popular.

Superheroes also are the rage for adults, Ellis said. Women are buying Batgirl and the new Robin, she said.

"The old standby — maids — is also selling very, very well," she said.

Men aren't looking for any particular type of costume but will get anything their wives or girlfriends approve of and that mostly go over their own clothes, Ellis said.

Michael Jackson is very popular, she said. "Everyone wants something to do with Michael," she said.

What's popular with both children and adults, Ellis said, are the Spongebob show characters. "Spongebob is very big," she said.

Masks are what stays on the shelves until the last-minute, Ellis said. "They're usually the last things that are looked for for a quick-fix type of costume," she said.

There are also the people who come in looking for basics for their own homemade costumes, she said. They've sold a lot of tights, bodysuits, individual tails and a lot of pageant banners, she said.

"It's been a really good year for Halloween," said Mike Lawrence, manager of Party City on Fruitville Pike. "You couldn't tell the economy was on a downturn by the amount of Halloween items we're selling."

It could be that Party City is seeing more people buying Halloween items there because it is a discount store and people are watching their money, Lawrence said.

Transformers and G.I. Joe costumes are highly popular for children, he said.

Adults are tending to purchase the Watchmen movie costumes as well as the traditional witches, he said. There also are more humorous costumes, such as Bruno or a sumo wrestler, being sold to men, he said.

Gory costumes are being sold at about the same level as other years, he said. Michael Myers is a classic, as is Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre costumes.

Political masks have dropped off this year, Lawrence said, probably because there are no big national elections.

Nationally, witches take the top spot in popularity while vampires are number two for adult costumes, according to the National Retail Federation.

Hardest hit this year were nurse costumes, which fell from the number five slot to 13, and political figures, which didn't even make the list.

"The departure of both nurses and politicians from the top costumes list could be an indication that Americans would like to shelve the health care reform debate — at least for one night — to have a little bipartisan fun," Tracy Mullin, NRF president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.

For children, make-believe takes the top spot for the fifth year in a row with 4.5 million princesses, 2 million witches, 1.3 million Spider-Men and a million pirates, pumpkins and vampires.

lvaningen@lnpnews.com