Angry Birds, Charlie Sheen and Zombies are Top Halloween Costume Picks in the Tri-Valley

Charlie Sheen may no longer be a regular fixture on television screens, but he'll likely be spotted in the streets and at parties this Halloween.

The troubled actor, who experienced a very public breakdown earlier this year, is Spirit Halloween’s most popular Halloween costume, said company spokesperson Sushma Dwivedi.

"This year it's really interesting, the most popular is proving to be Charlie Sheen," she said.

Each store has a dedicated “Sheen’s Corner," replete with hats and shirts synonymous with the actor. There are even costumes for his “goddesses,” a term he used to describe his posse of recent girlfriends.

Dubliners hoping to take on the actor’s persona this Halloween are in luck. Spirit Halloween opened its Dublin store last month on Amador Valley Boulevard, making dressing up as your favorite character a cinch. Pleasanton's Spirit Store inside the old Borders bookstore on Rosewood Drive is also packed to the hilt with costume accoutrements.

Dwivedi said the nature of Halloween costumes has experienced a shift over the years.

“It’s started to emerge as an adult humor holiday,” she said.

Superhero costumes are also flying off the shelves following the release this year of blockbusters such as Captain America, Thor and Green Lantern, said Dwivedi.

For girls, pop singers Rihanna and Katy Perry are the No. 1 choices, while characters from the hugely successful video game Angry Birds are “top sellers” for both genders, said Dwivedi.

At the Pleasanton store, Sales Associate Cat Burnap said the yellow Angry Bird (i.e. the super speedy one) is the most popular.

"People love Angry Birds — they're even coming in asking for the pig (character)," said Burnap.

Kids, meanwhile, are clamoring for costumes of Lightning McQueen, a character from the Pixar movie Cars 2.

But Halloween wouldn’t be the spooky holiday it is without some supernatural characters thrown in. Vampires and zombies are selling fast thanks to the Twilight franchise and AMC’s The Waking Dead.

“Zombies are big this year,” she said. “'The Walking Dead’ is giving a nice resurrection to zombie lovers out there.”

Burnap said a lot of adults are doing the zombie, but instead of buying up the pre-made costumes, they're stocking up on the makeup.

"It's all about the zombies this year," she said.

"A lot of our decorations are even zombie-themed," she added, pointing to a "zombie baby" display in the center of the store.

Along with injecting Dublin with some Halloween spirit, the new store is also boosting the local economy. Although exact statistics aren’t available for individual Spirit Halloween stores, Dwivedi said the new outlet has likely created at least twenty jobs in the area. 

Burnap said business at the Pleasanton store has picked up steadily in the last couple of weeks.

"Sundays are the busiest days, which is sort of random," she said. "Like, why not Saturdays? So weird."

She said that the stores are open until 8 p.m. on Sundays from now until Halloween, and on the Saturday before Halloween night, they will be open until mindight.

Anyone with questions about inventory should call the stores to ask; sales associates are required to know exactly what's in stock.

On Tuesday around noon, someone called the Pleasanton store with a very specific request.

"No, we don't have toddler Teletubbies," Burnap said into the phone. "Only adult Teletubbies."

Tanya Rose contributed to this report.