As Halloween approaches, local residents are busy putting the final touches on their costumes for the big night. Centreville’s Noel Dickover is using every minute he can to finish carving his pumpkins.

And not just garden variety Jack-O-Lanterns, either, but the kind of pumpkins that attract droves of people each year, from far and wide, to see his latest creations. And with more than 30 intricately carved pumpkins featuring everything from Mickey Mouse to movie characters to the hottest figures in science fiction, this Halloween’s offerings should be every bit as exciting as previous ones.

Although some parts of the country had a pumpkin shortage, Dickover had no trouble finding what he needed. "At the beginning of October, I got my three large pumpkins in Manassas — a 148-pounder and two 80-pound pumpkins," he said. "On the 148-pound pumpkin, I’ll do the Death Star from "Star Wars" for the last time. I created it and, since I put a free tutorial for it on the Internet, it’s gotten over 60,000 hits."

Dickover, 42, of the Westbrooke community, has been designing and carving pumpkins for 11 years and has developed quite a following. "People send me photos of my patterns that they’ve carved into pumpkins," he said. "It’s neat to have people carve my stuff."

This year, he’s planning to create the Starship Enterprise on one of the 80-pound pumpkins and a dragon from Forest Walk on the other one. "A famous fantasy artist, Anne Stokes, does a lot of the cover art for Wizards of the Coast — which did the artwork for the card game, ‘Magic: the Gathering,’" said Dickover. "A few years ago, I did a scary picture called Arachnoid — a woman who’d become part of a spiderweb. I e-mailed it to Stokes and she was blown away. So this year, I wanted to do one of her dragons from her new painting, Forest Walk. She said, if I send her a picture of the carving, she’ll send me a signed print of Forest Walk."

It takes him anywhere from one to 12 hours to carve each pumpkin, depending on the degree of difficulty and complexity. The ones he completes earlier are kept in the refrigerator to preserve them. He coats the cut parts with Vasoline and sprays them with a bacterial solution to keep the pattern moist and prevent fungus from growing.

THIS YEAR, two of his masterpieces will be sculptures, where he’s turned the pumpkin, itself, into an object, instead of putting a picture on top of it. "One is the inside of the egg from the movie, ‘Alien,’" said Dickover. "I also have an ORC — a nasty, green, gorilla-like thing with huge tusks for teeth — from ‘World of Warcraft.’"

There’ll be carved pumpkins representing several, popular movies, including "Transformers," "Coraline," "Up" and "Snow White." Also on display will be a couple pumpkins from "Batman," including one showing actress Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman.

Not surprisingly, Dickover’s whole family is also involved in the carving and have shown quite a bit of talent, themselves.

His , son Justin, 16, a junior at Centreville High, did Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare before Christmas," plus a flaming skull, and will also probably do a pumpkin representing the cover of the computer game, Diablo III. Daughter Sarah, 11, a sixth-grader at Centreville Elementary, carved a Goth version of Tinker Bell and a pumpkin honoring the Dr. Seuss classic, "Green Eggs and Ham."

"My nephew attending GMU, Joseph Chang of Clifton, did a full, cut-through Spider-Man," said Dickover. "He also did an intricate carving of [the video game] Castle." And my wife, Nam, carved Bob the Blob from the movie, ‘Monsters and Aliens.’ She also did the ‘Cat in the Hat.’"

ON HALLOWEEN, the pumpkins are all aglow on the front lawn of the Dickovers’ home, with creations to please adults through the youngest children. Nam did a cute carving of Mickey Mouse as a pirate, and Dickover is making a detailed, fantasy fairy.

"We’re also doing Tom and Jerry, and we’ll probably do Elmo and SpongeBob, too," he said. "And I did some Disney ones, including Tinker Bell playing with a crocodile from ‘Peter Pan.’ So there’ll be something for people of all ages."

He also plans to create a 360-degree carving of author Maurice Sendak’s "Where the Wild Things Are." It’ll portray the scene where the boy, Max, and the monsters are all up in the trees together. "Making a pattern that fits the pumpkin is challenging, as is tracing it," said Dickover. "I’ve spent six or seven hours on the pattern already and am not done, yet. The carving will take over 10 hours."

Yet despite all the hard work, he wouldn’t dream of not celebrating Halloween this way. "You get stressed from work and stuff but, when you get to start carving a pumpkin, it’s so relaxing," he said. "And it’s a nice, family-oriented activity. My whole family joins in, and we’re all sitting around the kitchen table, carving and talking."