So, I'm writing pulp stories set between 1910 and 1945. Lots of intrigues, possibilities, and crazy inventions going on during these decades. I need plot maguffins, so what's the craziest thing you've read about or can think of during these eras? Go wild. I'm down for Nazi lunar colonies, underground civilizations, hollow earths, eldritch horrors. Mafia werewolves. No guarantee I'll use any of your ideas or compensate you if I do.

I'll probably just start throwing things into a hat and pulling them out. So, let your brain run free!

Have you heard of the inflatable army the US used, I think during WWII? I think it was called the ghost army. They had all these inflatable tanks that they would set up to fake the enemy, then would actually attack from somewhere else. Not sure if inflatable is what you`re going for, though...

I have, yes! It's quite an impressive achievement what they managed. Not quite what I had in mind, but it's definitely a concept that I can run with.

Post WW I Germans did the opposite, they built up cars to train tankers. Pretty funny, until you think of where it got them.

Watch the movie Inkheart.

More later, hopefully. Past my nappy time.

Good thoughts! Thanks, and looking forward to hearing more.

For a while I considered doing a "Wild East" sort of thing. The main character was a cowboy from the hey day of the west, but he came back east for a family obligation. In Appalachia there are all sorts of valleys and "hollers" where strange things hide away. Some of the thoughts were that a few places had less dividing one reality from another and orcs, elves, and what not crossed over. Even more of a challenge in Revolutionary War era.

Add to that all the story-tellers like Lovecraft, etc. Ones from the centuries before who came up with fansastical creatures. What if those authors weren't making stuff up? Perhaps they hid behind pen names and had actually seen the creatures they wrote of; their "fiction" was a warning to us all.

Another series you might want to read is the "Monster Hunters International". Modern day but there's a government bounty of monsters. Most people don't know monsters exist and the government's bounty aims to keep it that way. However, there no mind erasing like "Men In Black" or the "Incredibles".

"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" was another fun cross-over movie.