The most popular Halloween costumes in Las Vegas this year

The clock is ticking and it soon will be the witching hour ...

Or Halloween, anyway, so if you haven't already scored a killer costume for this weekend's parties, you risk being relegated to cheapie ensembles and thrown-together bits and pieces of characters nobody will even recognize.

But it's not too late to find a good costume. And, in a sort of a reverse take on this sort of thing, Google's Frightgeist tool lists the most popular costumes trending in Las Vegas and other cities so you can choose something else and avoid being your party's second, third or fourth Batman, pirate or Princess Leia.

By that twist of counterintuitive reasoning, don't even consider going to a party this weekend as Harley Quinn, the Joker's maniacal muse from the Batman animated series and comics. She's No. 1 on Google's most popular list, not just in Las Vegas, but in several other cities, too.

That certainly has something to do with both the character's crazed charm and the fact that photos of actress Margot Robbie portraying Harley in next summer's "Suicide Squad" film have been lighting up the Internet for months. But if you want to go to the party as this Halloween's most popular character, and you're OK with not being the only Harley at the party, she's your girl.

Other costumes that have been turning up over the past few days on the Google most-popular tool for Las Vegas are pirates, "Star Wars" characters, clowns and Batman. So wear 'em if you want, but understand that you may be a member of the party's chorus rather than its star.

On the other hand, you could go old school and draw on the more than two decades' worth of experience Marc Salls brings to outfitting Halloweening Southern Nevadans as owner of Star Costume and Theatrical Supply, 3230 S. Valley View Blvd.

This year, "we're seeing a lot of clowns, both funny and scary," Salls says. "That's so out of character. I have never seen that in 20 years."

Maybe it's a ripple effect from this year's Harley Quinn blowup or, Salls says, because clowns offer revelers "both a scary side and a fun side."

Superhero costumes are "over the top" this year, Salls says, "just the strong, classic characters." So it's safe to assume you won't be the only Superman, Batman, Captain America, Supergirl or Wonder Woman at the party.

Women seeking to combine that whole good girl/bad girl thing have made Maleficent popular this year, offering, Salls says, a woman who's "strong, kind of sinister, evil, but a very pretty character."

Zombies and various iterations of the undead also remain popular, Salls says. "I mean, creations that are just scary. I helped one (customer), and they got me pictures yesterday and it's unbelievable what he created. He looks like he came out of the crypt and he's ready to meet you on some not-so-nice street."

Elvis, too, remains "very strong and very typical of Las Vegas," Salls says. "He's still one of those that people want to be. They want to be that Las Vegas icon."

And from straight outta left field: "Astronauts are very big this year," Salls says. "We're going to blow through our astronauts, and we've never done that before."

Credit, Salls suspects, the Matt Damon film "The Martian."

Among the costumes that used to be popular but don't seem to be so this year, according to Salls, are pirates, totally contradicting Google's trend.

"They've dominated for four or five years," Salls says, but this year have "just kind of lulled and are not as strong."

Also fallen off this year, according to Salls: harem costumes (sorry, Jeannie), cartoon characters (sorry, Scooby) and angels (sorry, um, God?)

And while "Star Wars" characters are big this year, " 'Star Trek' has been dead," Salls says, probably because the former series has a highly anticipated film coming out in December.

Finally, in a world of always shifting costume preferences, it's reassuring to know that showgirl costumes remain a local favorite, even if Salls has noticed that women this year "love the headpiece" but are covering up elsewhere to "show much less skin."

— Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280 and follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.