I thought that Lego prices had remained pretty steady over time.
https://realityprose.com/what-happened-with-lego/
OK, that study was published 10 years ago, but I haven't noticed any huge price hikes in the last decade for comparable sets. Yes, there are some bigger sets now than there used to be, but the small sets haven't gone away and are still there too, at what seem like reasonable (to me) prices. And while sets based on licensing deals (e.g. Marvel/Disney) are a bit more pricey than their own in-house ranges (City, Creator, Friends, Ninjago, etc...), again it doesn't seem like a huge gap?
Lego was pretty famous for doing branded partnerships and still struggling [1]. This lead them to come up with more of their own IP like Bionicle and Ninjago.
Isn't Pulse/HasLab that? For example they have a $300 Ghost Trap and P.K.E. Meter.
[1] https://hasbropulse.com/collections/haslab/products/ghostbus...
I can't come up with something I would buy from Hasbro in that range and having something to do with it though.
And there is Lego master tv show which also makes a lot of sense.
They have expanded their product range upwards, but they still have tons of inexpensive, non-3rd-party-brand Lego sets.
With the exception of DnD, everything else Hasbro-owned has failed to capture such an audience I think.
Their toys are generally priced ~$25 or less. Higher-end variants of their toys are not by Hasbro, but rather by other companies. Want a high-end nerf gun? You're going to Dart Zone, not Hasbro.
On Amazon their toys are competing on the same footing with the cheaper (often better) knock-off brands.
Their board games are dated and haven't really evolved. Monopoly is $15 while Catan is $100, /r/HotWheels collectors want old cars not the cheap new ones, etc.
By comparison, brands like Lego have evolved, are insanely expensive (>$100) and I constantly see adults with disposable income purchasing them en-mass while they're not really affordable as kids toys anymore.