DreamWorks, Hasbro Form Toy Venture

NEW YORK —  Hasbro Inc., one of the world’s largest toy companies and the maker of G.I. Joe, Tinkertoys and Mr. Potato Head, has teamed up with DreamWorks SKG, the new studio founded by three of Hollywood’s foremost powerbrokers.

DreamWorks Toys will produce and market toys and games tied into the studio’s releases and possibly toys that are the brainchild of Steven Spielberg, a DreamWorks founder and the director of the movie “E.T., the Extraterrestrial.”

DreamWorks SKG was founded in October, 1994, by Spielberg, former Disney Studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg and music mogul David Geffen.

As part of the partnership announced Wednesday, DreamWorks will establish a product group in Los Angeles, Hasbro said. This group will work closely with Hasbro’s Kenner, Playskool, Milton Bradley and Parker Bros. divisions.

“Work has already begun on products that we expect to bring to market early in 1997,” said Alan Hassenfeld, Hasbro chairman and chief executive.

Hasbro Chief Operating Officer Al Verricchia said DreamWorks’ live-action and animated movie and television productions will be the basis of many of the new toys and games.

He said toy development is not new to Spielberg, who said in a statement, “One of my ambitions has been to have a toy company.”

Verricchia said DreamWorks toys probably won’t make their debut until the February, 1997, American International Toy Fair, the premier trade show, held annually in New York.

Hasbro’s stock closed up 12.5 cents at $31.625.