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Originally Posted by andy
The portacolor IIs are from the early 70's and completely different from those 80's GE portables.
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Correct-- the JA-chassis Portacolor II is entirely different from the AA/AB-chassis sets that were introduced in the late 70's and made through the mid-80's. The JA chassis is from the early 70's, and uses the same CRT as the tube Portacolors from that same time. The 10" version of the AA/AB sets have a CRT that is similar to that of the stripe-phosphor version of the Portacolor CRT, but it's not identical-- the neck is shorter and the convergence assembly is different. I'd suspect they're pin compatible though I don't know for sure. [I do sometimes refer to the 10" AA/AB-chassis sets as the "Portacolor III" though...
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The Portacolor II was GE's first attempt at a solid-state version of the Portacolor, and must have sold rather poorly, because they're not very common today. They were probably a lot more expensive than the regular tube-type Portacolors. I tend to suspect they only made them for one model year, and it was quite some time before GE tried again with the AA-chassis.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Portacolor II is actually slightly larger (and boxier in shape) than the tube-type Portacolors, despite being solid-state.