Units of time

Transformers, being extraterrestrials, are often overheard stating measurements in units that are unfamiliar to humans. Further, Transformers in different universes often use different units for measurement, and sometimes even use the same unit name but define it differnetly. Following is a list of units of time that Cybertronians have been observed using.

Specific unit definitions

Astrosecond

.498 seconds

Defined by Dreamwave's More Than Meets The Eye #8 as 1/1000th of a breem. Astroseconds as referenced in the Generation 1 cartoon seem to be much shorter, but were never defined. In particular, in "Divide and Conquer" Shockwave states that the space bridge will materialize within 72 billion astroseconds, an interval exceeding a millenium if Dreamwave's definition is applied. Even ignoring this extreme case, astroseconds in general cartoon use appeared to be much less than one second each.

Breem

8.3 minutes

Originally defined in the Marvel Comics, also used in Dreamwave's comics.

Cycle (G1 UK comics)

2 hours

In the UK G1 comic story, "Target 2006", Ultra Magnus timed his mission on Earth in Cycles that were exactly equal to 2 hours.

Cycle (Beast Wars)

~1 minute

Beast Wars cartoon story editors Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio stated that the "cycles" used in their series were very roughly equivalent to a minute. Maybe more, maybe less, but something of that order of magnitude.

Cycle (IDW comics)

1 hour 15 minutes (1.25 hours)

Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.[1]

Deca-cycle (Beast Wars)

~1 year

As with the Beast Wars cycle, this unit is on the order of a year, as defined by the series' story editors.

Deca-cycle (IDW comics)

~3 weeks

Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.

Groon

~1 hour

Roughly equivalent to an hour. In "The Magnificent Six!", Megadeath let his broken Autobot prisoners go with a neutronic blast imminent in two groons. Retelling this event to Silverbolt in 1990, Jazz described the time as two hours.

Joor

???

Used idiomatically like "hour", but of unknown duration. In "The Magnificent Six!", Steamhammer had an inspection parade scheduled at 0700 joors, not long after Cybertron's lunar dawn.

Klik

1.2 minutes

Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.

Mega-cycle (Beast Wars)

~1 hour

As with the Beast Wars cycle, this unit is on the order of an hour, as defined by the series' story editors. Used incongruously in The Agenda, Part 1 to refer to a much longer span of time. (One of the Tripedicus council says, "His ship and the Axalon both vanished last megacycle. The Maximal probes never found them.") Ben Yee cites a statement from DiTillio that another unit -- the deca-cycle -- is roughly year-like in length.[2] This may be the unit that was intended for that line of dialogue.

Mega-cycle (IDW comics)

93 hours

Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.

Meta-cycle

13 months

Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.

Nano-klik

~1 second

As with the Beast Wars cycle, this unit is on the order of a second, as defined by the series' story editors. Used similarly in IDW comics.

Orn

???

A unit of undetermined duration. It is apparently defined as "one Cybertronian lunar day".

Quartex

???

A unit of undetermined duration. In the very first Transformers cartoon episode, "More Than Meets The Eye, Part 1", Wheeljack complains that the shoddy energy conductors he and Bumblebee picked up don't have enough juice in them to last a quartex, so make of that what you will.

Stellar cycle (Beast Wars)

~400 days

Orbital period (a Cybertronian "year") for Cybertron as stated by Larry DiTillio in information sent to Ben Yee. DiTillio also volunteers that Cybertron's rotational period (a "day") is ~20 hours.

Stellar cycle (IDW comics)

~7.5 months

Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.

Vorn

83 years

Originally defined in the Marvel Comics, also used in Dreamwave's comics.

External links

• Simon Furman defines IDW units in an IDW forum post
• Ben Yee's "general info" on the BW cartoon includes DiTillio's list of time units
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.