Units of time
From MediaWiki
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
| Name | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| Century | ??? | In the Transformers Animated premiere, "Transform and Roll Out", several references are made to the Great Wars ending "centuries ago", all prior to first contact between Transformers and Earth. This is probably a case of dialogue being written for human observers rather than indicating the existence of a "Cybertronian century", but it is included here for completeness. Similarly, the history vid at the very beginning of the episode refers to "millions of years", an Earth unit. It is unclear how this time should be interpreted. |
| 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. |
| Milli-cycle | ??? | A unit of undetermined duration. It was often mentioned since Episode 6 in Beast Wars cartoon. |
| Nano-klik (Animted) | ~1 second OR ~1 minute ??? | In "Home is Where the Spark Is", Optimus Prime enters Prowl's quarters asking, "Prowl, got a nano-klik?" Idiomatically, then, this nano-klik is probably similar to either the English unit "second" or "minute". |
| Nano-klik (Beast Wars) | ~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. |
| Solar cycle (Animated) | ~1 year OR ~1 day ??? | In "Transform and Roll Out, Part 1", Megatron says he has spent "the last four million solar cycles searching the galaxy" for the All Spark. The parallel to Generation 1's famous "four million years" implies that this unit is meant to be year-like. However, in "Transform and Roll Out, Part 2", Optimus Prime and Ratchet have an exchange in which the solar cycle appears to be idiomatically equivalent to a day... Prime: "I've seen more action in this one solar cycle than in my entire Cybertron Service career." Ratchet, glancing at a screen showing the night outside: "Solar cycle's not over yet..." If, indeed, a solar cycle is a day-like unit, then Megatron's search has lasted on the order of 11 thousand Earth years. |
| Solar cycle (Beast Machines) | ~1 day | In the Beast Machines episode "The Weak Component", Rattrap uses the term "half a solar cycle" to decribe the amount of time the Maximal would leave Megatron alone in order to regain his strength: one night, from dusk-to-dawn. |
| 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. |
| Trimara | ??? | Used in Beast Wars The Ascending 2. Likely "3" of something, but who knows what. |
| Vorn | 83 years | Originally defined in the Marvel Comics, also used in Dreamwave's comics. |
