Time-jump trigger device

Time-jump trigger devices, also called time control triggers and time-jump trigger mechanisms, are portable instruments with which people can summon a time portal to the past and back to their present. A time-jump trigger device takes its operator and all standing close to them to the chosen past, but if used for the return trip, it only takes those along who are both close by and came from the future. A sort of upgraded version was made once, simply called an over-ride mechanism, which was capable of returning everyone to the future regardless of their distance from the device.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Believing he could accomplish nothing in 1986 that would help his 2006, Galvatron collected his lieutenants and activated his time-jump trigger device to get back to their home time. Rodimus Prime did the same since he and his soldiers no longer had a reason to be in the past. Target: 2006 However, Galvatron found his home time to be not up to his standards when Rodimus Prime defeated him and threw him into space, so he used the trigger device he, unbeknown to his enemies, still had to travel to the year 1987. There, he hoped to have no noteworthy opposition when he'd work on a way to become invincible. Fallen Angel

In 2006, Rodimus Prime eventually learned of how Galvatron had eluded him thus far and brought together a team to defeat the Decepticon in 1987. Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive! Once the Autobots had gotten enough confirmation that they couldn't defeat Galvatron, Wreck-Gar and Goldbug suggested a plan to get Galvatron back with them to 2006, where he would be far less harmful. While all the other Autobots would distract Galvatron, Wreck-Gar would steal his trigger device and use its and the Autobots' trigger device's parts to make a new, stronger instrument that would send them all back at once. The plan was implemented and went well until Galvatron defeated Ultra Magnus and, in thinking that now nothing stood in his way to godhood, realized there was one thing. Searching for his trigger device, he realized what was going on and engaged Wreck-Gar's bodyguard Rodimus in battle. Wreck-Gar meanwhile was having trouble finishing the over-ride mechanism because there were some peculiar differences between the Autobots' and Galvatron's trigger devices. A surprise attack by Death's Head took the Galvatron-problem temporary out of Autobot hands and Rodimus Prime decided that they had no time to investigate the oddities in Galvatron's device. Wreck-Gar thus activated the mechanism as he had built it, sending all Autobots back to 2006... but not Galvatron, who had tampered with his device to prevent such a move from being pulled on him. Fire on High!

With no means to get back to 2006, Galvatron stayed on Earth, planning his grand comeback. He was contacted in 1988 by Scourge and Cyclonus, both now stuck in the past too, and arranged to meet them in some city in Oregon. But while Galvatron thought the two wanted to serve him once again, Scourge and Cyclonus were actually after the trigger device they knew he had, so that they could return to 2008 and rule Cybertron. Galvatron was amused when he learned of this, challenging them to fight him for the trigger device rather than telling them he no longer had it. The arrival of the Wreckers worsened the situation considerably, until Galvatron taunted them with their terrible timing, mentioning the other two Decepticons were after a trigger device they did not know no longer existed. This gave Springer an idea, and he faked having stolen the trigger device from Galvatron to get Scourge and Cyclonus after him, away from the city and its people. The two caught up with him just outside the city, beating him unconscious only to discover he never had the trigger device. Upon the arrival of the other Autobots, they fled. Wrecking Havoc

Eventually, Galvatron's long stay in the past and Cyclonus's and Scourge's unbalanced stay caused a time rift in 1989, which destroyed Quintessa and was about to do the same to Cybertron and Earth. Many parties got involved in the events around this threat, some too from the future. When the ordeal had been brought to an end, the future-original parties used trigger devices to get back to their home time. Before Rodimus Prime's party went though, Optimus Prime advised them to have all the time-jump devices destroyed to ensure a near-disaster like this would never happen again. Time Wars