The Ant Hill Mob is a group of 1920s gangsters who compete in Wacky Races. Their names are Clyde (leader, voiced by Paul Winchell), Ring-A-Ding (Don Messick), Danny, Rug Bug Benny, Mac, Kirby and Willy. In the Japanese dub, Clyde was voiced by Susumu Mizushima in the series and Masaharu Satō in the games, Ring-A-Ding was voiced by Kazuya Tatekabe in the series and Naoki Tatsuta in the games, Danny was voiced by Osamu Katō in the series and games, Rug Bug Benny was voiced by Shigeyuki Hosoi in the series and games, Mac was voiced by Minoru Midorikawa in the series and Yūji Machi in the games, Kirby was voiced by the late Masashi Amenomori in the series and the late Daisuke Gōri in the games and Willy was voiced by Takuzō Kamiyama in the series and in the games.
Original Roles[]
Their origins are never revealed, but they are usually depicted as a 'band of brothers'. Although he is sometimes rude to the rest of the gang, Clyde cares for them. In one episode, when the rest of the gang was stuck in the Creepy Coupe, Clyde was menacing the Gruesomes: "All right, you creeps, where are my boys?"
The gang drive in car number 7, The Bulletproof Bomb (also known as The Roaring Plenty), and are pint-sized and inseperable, a reference to the Seven Dwarfs. In the very first episode, "See-Saw to Arkansas", they even disguise themselves as the Seven Dwarfs to escape from a policeman. Their usual method of improving the speed of their car is "getaway" power, which they achieve by extending their feet through the floor of the car and running, the same way Fred Flintstone accelerates his own car.
Clyde is probably named for criminal Clyde Barrow. This is further reinforced when he threatens the others with, "Youse want I should tell Bonnie on you?": an apparent reference to Barrow's henchwoman, Bonnie Parker. When Wacky Races is dubbed in French, Clyde's name was changed to "Al Carbone", a play on Al Capone.
Ring-A-Ding usually queries Clyde's orders or causes the plan to go wrong in some way. Clyde also sometimes wrongly calls him "Ding-A-Ling" instead of "Ring-A-Ding."
Later Roles[]
The Ant Hill Mob re-appears in a spin-off of Wacky Races, called The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, in which they were Penelope's protectors. The resemblance to the Seven Dwarves was here emphasized even further, with the heroine Penelope in the role of Snow White. They all had different names, except Clyde, who wore a gray suit, and the others all wore blue. Also, their car changed appearance, and took the new name of Chugga-Boom.
Their names and personalities are different in this cartoon. "Yak Yak" cannot stop laughing and almost always would laugh during times of peril. "Softy" cannot stop crying and will mostly do so during a genuinely happy moment. "Pockets" always had gadgets in his pockets. "Zippy" could run really fast. "Snoozy" always falls asleep, sleep-talking, and "Dum-Dum" lacks all common sense.
An episode of Winsome Witch even had the Mob act out the role of the Seven Dwarves, in name as well as fact, with Penelope in the role of Snow White, and her usual adversary, Sylvester Sneekly, alias the Hooded Claw, as the Prince who woke her.
Namesake[]
Before Wacky Races, the name is used in the Atom Ant short "Wild, Wild Ants". Here, the Ant Hill Mob is a bunch of biker ants who steal the picnickers' food.
