Tough Customers

We're not bullies. We're kids who have a hard time expressing our emotions in a constructive manner. The Tough Customers are a gang of bullies at Lakewood Elementary School.

Early history
Binky Barnes founded the club sometime before Arthur's third grade school year. By the time of the group's formal introduction in "Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper," the Tough Customers had already gained their infamous reputation. Their general activities were fighting (with each other), looking tough, and possibly even occasional gleeping.

Binky and Sue Ellen
When Sue Ellen was still a new kid at school, Binky made her lose count on her jump rope, and she demanded that he apologize. After Binky threatened to fight her, she unexpectedly accepted his challenge. Learning that Sue Ellen takes Taekwondo lessons, Binky wisely decided to instead compete with Sue Ellen as rival musicians.

With their leader now pursuing personal interests (ballet, books, butterflies, etc.), many of the Tough Customers stopped regularly hanging out with the club. Most of them, however, joined Binky in a ballet on one occasion.

De-founding and revival
The remaining three Tough Customers, eager to restore the organization to its former status, took the opportunity to force their leader to hit someone. After doing so, however, Binky instead decided to "de-found" the club, since it was he who had founded it in the first place. Binky then founded a new club, devoid of any "dumb hitting rules." But the "new" Tough Customers continued to quietly fade away, with one more member leaving the club. However, it was around this time that Slink transferred from Mighty Mountain and joined the Tough Customers.

Binky's final major act as leader was a far-fetched plan to eliminate all music around the world, titled "Silence is Golden". His plan failed, Binky left the group once again to continue his career in music. At this point, Molly, who had been the interim head of the group during Binky's absences, was officially established as the new leader of the Tough Customers.

Molly as leader
During the changing of powers, the Tough Customers also shifted their primary headquarters to the playground jungle gym, which they had dubbed as the "Tower of Pain". After Muffy unwittingly "freed" the Tower of Pain for anyone to use, the gang spent a brief time looking for a new headquarters, until Muffy and Molly agreed to let the Tough Customers once again "own" the jungle gym.

Molly soon developed a friendship with Arthur. Both groups of each one's friends (Arthur's friends and the Tough Customers) feared that their friend would become like the other group, leading them to put an end to the friendship, or so they believed they had.

After some time, Muffy again unintentionally caused trouble by distracting everyone with her mySmartPhoney and not "letting" the Tough Customers have anyone to menace. The Tough Customers allied with Muffy to restore the playground, but she took over the project and took it too far, forcing Mr. Haney to shut it down. Eventually, however, Muffy's friends became uninterested in the device and went back to playing the "old-fashioned" way.

By this point, the school had become practically "bully-proofed," leaving the Tough Customers with nothing to do for fun. Despite Molly's desire to remain bullies for the respect that came from it, her three teammates led the group in finding a new image for themselves. After short attempts at exercising, singing, and enforcing the law, they settled on critiquing the healthiness of food and savagely consuming it in large proportions. Molly appears to still be the leader, and has finally given up bullying, having seen the copycat effect it had on her own brother.

Current members

 * Binky Barnes (Founder; former leader)
 * Molly MacDonald (Current leader)
 * Rattles
 * Slink

Status unknown

 * Billy
 * Kieper
 * 4th Grade Male Dog
 * 4th Grade Female Cat
 * 4th Grade Male Rabbit
 * 4th Grade Female Aardvark

Temporary

 * Arthur Read ("Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper")
 * George Lundgren ("The Boy with His Head in the Clouds")

Alternate names
The Tough Customers have a tendency to rename themselves, often temporarily, when they change their interests.
 * "Bully Ballet" - when they danced a ballet about green potato chips in "The Chips are Down"
 * "Tough Costumers" - unofficially; when they tried to get kids interested in playing outside in "The Play's the Thing"
 * "Buff Customers" - when they tried working out in "The Last Tough Customer"
 * "Muffy Crosswire's 4 Open Hearts Tough Customers (MCTC)" - when they tried singing in "The Last Tough Customer"
 * "Shush Customers" - when they tried to enforce the library's "no talking rule in "The Last Tough Customer"
 * "Tough Consumers" - current name; when they inform people about the nutrition of food

Trivia

 * Some of the members are named after baby stuff and children's toys.

Episodes featured
Episodes with enough of them together to be recognized as the Tough Customers. Ones that specifically focus on them are in bold.
 * Season 1
 * 10602 Arthur Accused!
 * 10701 Arthur Goes to Camp
 * 11201 Arthur Writes a Story
 * 11702 Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper
 * 12301 Bully for Binky
 * Season 2
 * 20101 Arthur Meets Mister Rogers
 * 20302 Buster and the Daredevils (Slink's debut)
 * 21002 Arthur's Mystery Envelope
 * 21202 Arthur and the Square Dance
 * 21601 Love Notes for Muffy
 * Season 3
 * 30502 Revenge of the Chip
 * 30801 Popular Girls
 * Season 4
 * 40102 Arthur's Big Hit
 * Season 5
 * 50702 Pet Peeved
 * Season 6
 * 60402 Brother Can You Spare a Clarinet?
 * Season 7
 * 70901 Prunella Sees the Light (cameo)
 * Season 8
 * 80202 Thanks a Lot, Binky
 * 80402 D.W., Dancing Queen
 * Season 9
 * 90302 The Law of the Jungle Gym
 * 90601 Arthur Makes Waves
 * 90901 D.W. Beats All (cameo)
 * Season 14
 * 140302 The Play's the Thing
 * 140801 Arthur Unravels
 * 140901 D.W., Queen of the Comeback
 * Season 15
 * 150201 I Wanna Hold Your Hand
 * Season 16
 * 1601 Based on a True Story
 * 160201 Flippity Francine (cameo)
 * 160601 The Last Tough Customer
 * 160702 Brain's Biggest Blunder
 * 161001 So Funny I Forgot to Laugh
 * 161002 The Best Day Ever (mentioned)