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Is there a definite length of time stated by the comics themselves, in both G1 and IDW, that elapsed from issue 1 to the final issue of their respective stories? I know the G1 comics started in 1984, but I don't remember anything more specific, and issue #78 was stated as 1991, but also nothing specific. Was it ever said what the date was when the Ark crashed in Canada and the Autobots returned to Cybertron? What about IDW, starting either at the very beginning or at least with the cast split in 2012?

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is there a definite length of time stated by the comics themselves, in both G1 and IDW, that elapsed from issue 1 to the final issue of their respective stories? I know the G1 comics started in 1984, but I don't remember anything more specific, and issue #78 was stated as 1991, but also nothing specific. Was it ever said what the date was when the Ark crashed in Canada and the Autobots returned to Cybertron? What about IDW, starting either at the very beginning or at least with the cast split in 2012?

To my knowledge: not really.

I don't think that the Marvel US series really bothered with dates outside of Unicron sending Galvatron back through time. The Marvel UK seemed only to state dates when they had stories set in then future after the events of TF:TM or stories that involved Galvatron and/or time travel.

IDW was pretty much the same unless the story was set in a specific point in either the past,(like Spotlight Shockwave, Spotlight Soundwave, and Evolution)or maybe in some cases establish how much time has passed between when the Transformers left Earth and came back to show and/or explain where various human characters and organizations that they knew and/or fought where they were.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is there a definite length of time stated by the comics themselves, in both G1 and IDW, that elapsed from issue 1 to the final issue of their respective stories? I know the G1 comics started in 1984, but I don't remember anything more specific, and issue #78 was stated as 1991, but also nothing specific. Was it ever said what the date was when the Ark crashed in Canada and the Autobots returned to Cybertron? What about IDW, starting either at the very beginning or at least with the cast split in 2012?

The Ark crashed in Canada?
Forget asking about dates.....you need to ask about locations lol

Just a joke,
I’m the Marvel comics the Ark did NOT crash in Canada
Roughly 4million years ago, the Ark crashed into a Volcano just outside a part of the world that would become known as Portland Oregon United States of America

The fictional volcano was named Mount St Hillary, The inspiration for that fictional volcano was Mount Saint Helens just outside of the state of Washington

As far as dates go, it seems that in the Marvel comics they played it very loosely, for example Booster (the human friend) did not seem to age very much over the books run....and yet in the stories covering the arrival of Unicron in the comics the books Reference the then current year the book was printed within the story, the 1990s....so we can be argued that real world time has passed

Likewise, the real world year was also mentioned in the UK Target 2006 stories

Based on that, it would seem it’s safe to assume that date the autobots return to cybertron was on the release date of the final issue of the comic, which would be in late 1990 , not the printed date, it was a comic book practice to have cover dates on books that were nearly 4 months in advanced.

For example, the first issue of the Marvel Transformers comic was released in May of 84, but the cover date is September

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is there a definite length of time stated by the comics themselves, in both G1 and IDW, that elapsed from issue 1 to the final issue of their respective stories? I know the G1 comics started in 1984, but I don't remember anything more specific, and issue #78 was stated as 1991, but also nothing specific. Was it ever said what the date was when the Ark crashed in Canada and the Autobots returned to Cybertron? What about IDW, starting either at the very beginning or at least with the cast split in 2012?

The Ark crashed in Canada?

It most certainly did. Issue #79:



And it's "Buster," not "Booster."

The main reason I asked about the timeline was because I'm trying to determine Spike's age in the comics from the time he showed up until the end of the G1 series, G2 and ReGeneration One not included.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is there a definite length of time stated by the comics themselves, in both G1 and IDW, that elapsed from issue 1 to the final issue of their respective stories? I know the G1 comics started in 1984, but I don't remember anything more specific, and issue #78 was stated as 1991, but also nothing specific. Was it ever said what the date was when the Ark crashed in Canada and the Autobots returned to Cybertron? What about IDW, starting either at the very beginning or at least with the cast split in 2012?

The Ark crashed in Canada?

It most certainly did. Issue #79:



And it's "Buster," not "Booster."

The main reason I asked about the timeline was because I'm trying to determine Spike's age in the comics from the time he showed up until the end of the G1 series, G2 and ReGeneration One not included.

Sorry bout that
When you posted the 1984 date I just assumed you were asking about the original crash

The spelling mistake is my damn autocorrect

As to your question.....I still stand by what I said above , seems real world time was reflected within the stories on a few Occasions so I would say it would be near the printed date of the book or within a few years

Okay, thanks. I guess that makes sense. Spike was in college the whole time until he showed up in issue #38, so I'll guess he was about 22 when he debuted and about 25 when the series ended. I just needed to figure out the timeline, and I wasn't sure if I missed anything.

Pseudo "real time", for instance Infiltration happens in 2006 and Megatron's takeover of New York is, in-fiction, in 2008 or 2009 or whenever that was. Death of Optimus Prime, RiD 1 and MTMTE 1 are in 2012. Revolution is in 2016, Unicron attacks in 2018.

MTMTE and Lost Light get really out of sync by the end with TF and OP, but even the creators admit there wasn't a serious effort to keep their timelines "together" by that point. I think they no-prized it by saying The Warren is responsible for some crazy time dilations or contractions, but unsure how official that explanation is.

Marvel UK used Christmas issues to mark the ends of each in-story year.