Way cool! The head reminds me a light of GE's Night Bright Security Light, which was basically a compact version of the 201SA designed for the residential market. They were painted gray (the only NEMA to be painted gray AFAIK) though the full-sized 201SAs were never painted.

Interesting, I didn't know GE made a smaller version of the 201SA for the residential market. Must have also been a fairly rare fixture since I don't thing I've seen one. Yeah it was kinda neat seeing a gumball overseas. Kinda also interesting that it's painted grey while the cobras were all unpainted.

Here's one a collector on LG has. The screws holding the ballast in place are on the outside of the fixture, which is kinda cool. Never seen a fixture with that before (granted I suppose it's also a bit tacky but you can't notice it from the ground).

The cobraheads were painted but the "real" 201SA NEMAs were not, at least not AFAIK. The Powr/Brackets were always painted though. The very first ones were silver (I'd like to find one of those!) but by 1966 they were gray like the cobraheads. Same for the M-100s. The Powr/Door cobraheads weren't introduced until 1966 so they were always gray.

Very interesting. I thought it was a older version of the 201-SA at first. I didn't know that was GE's stripped down version of the 201-SA. My Powerlite mini gumball has the screws holding the socket bracket which also serve as the screws for adjusting socket height on the outside. The "head" on the Powerlite mini gumball is stamped sheet aluminium so I could see why they did that.

Yeah that was their hardware store version lol. Though I've seen some homes with the utility version, which is the kind we're used to seeing with the NEMA tag and all. The residential grade one came with a stubby ~6" arm while the utility grade one came with the 24" arm with the thru-bolt provision and all the necessary hardware including lamp and PC (which the residential one did too). Once GE stopped making their own photocells they used Fisher Pierce photocells and shorting caps. I think they use ALR products now...

The residential version was made in 175W MV but I'm not sure about 100W MV (I assume so) or HPS. I doubt HPS since the housing is quite cramped and HPS was probably out of the budget for most homeowners in the 80s. The few people who could afford HPS would probably opt for the utility version anyway (but rich people don't want stinky orange light, now do they? lol) I've never seen the residential version in anything but 175W MV. I assume they were all 120V too. GE offered the "real" 201SA in 50, 70, 100, and 150W HPS, 100, 175, and 250W MV in 120V and 240V. They offered a large assortment of lamps too, including standard clear, coated, dual-arc tube, non-cycling, and EcoLux. The first two were for MV or HPS but the rest are HPS-only. Here's their spec sheet for the 201SA. I wonder how long it will be around...

Ahh, I don't think I've seen privately owned NEMAs around here, most homeowner HID fixtures are either 35 or 70w HPS tallpacks or in some rare cases, the 175w mercury yardlight.

Most PAL fixtures here were Powerlite brackets and the odd GE Powr/Bracket if a 400w mercury one was desired. Interesting to know that the 201SA with the 6" arm was the hardware store one. I looked at the catalogue page you linked, seems the 24" arm you mentioned is the same one that came with my LM Spherolite Jr. It was a GE arm so it makes sense lol.

70w or 100w HPS might have been offered. I believe even in the 80s there was usually a deluxe residential HID yardlight option which was oddly in HPS lol.

Ah the bracket lights are super rare here. I've seen some of those 6ft Sylvania brackets in a municipal utility (Pascoag Utility in Burrillville, RI) which are awesome and I've seen some 175W GE Powr/Brakets in a trailer park in Warwick (Narragansett Electric owned lights too! But NGrid obviously doesn't maintain them and apparently neither did NECo since there are some M-250R1s from the 70s and very early 80s mixed in as well as newer M-250R2s and OVZs that NGrid has installed.

Those 6ft Sylvania brackets are pretty neat though, would love to see the inside of one and how similar if they are to the Powerlite ones.

I once had a chance to buy a NOS 400w MV Cooper Vanguard at Restore but they wanted $150 for it which was a bit more than what I was willing to pay. It had the 12" refractor so I think that sucker would have been hot with that 400 watter. I might have considered getting it if it was 175w.

Wow 400W lamp in a 12" bucket? Come to think of it, I think GE was the only one who offered a large bucket for 400W lamps. Some rare bracket fixtures might even ahve 12" glass buckets for 400W MV. That would be cool! The socket must be set quite high on them for the lamp not to stick out.

Yeah I'd like to see one of those 6ft Sylvania brackets up close too and see the inside! They sure are hard to find though!

Ahh, I posted a picture I snapped of the fixture when it was still at Restore. It came with a lamp too but I guess the socket was mounted pretty deep so the lamp didn't stick out. Anyway I believe the Vanguard I saw only had a plastic bucket. Would be interesting to see a bracket fixture with a 12" glass bucket though.