Love this thread, shonnar that robot looks like one my brother had more than a few (20?) years ago! great stuff.

Mine here is a 'wizards orb' on a simple wooden cube to simulate a table.
 
I was doing it in between tweaking, printing out and framing a doz high quality photos for family Christmas prezzies, it then took 3 1/2 hours to render.

It has 6 spheres with different textures including volumetric,  fractal and a photo of a brass backed crystal door nob as a mat on the centre orb and  a bryce sweeping spiral with a starfield mat.

I was a bit dissapointed with the starfield as it didn't hold the 'glitter' when I rendered so I have to figure out how to adjust that, any hints will be welcome.