"Taste creation" Reproduction

Here's my own reproduction of "Taste creation" by *DjDrako on deviantART

And here's the original: 

I decided that this would be a simple reproduction that would test my CGI skills. I let this image render in Cycles for quite awhile. I think that it reached around 7000 Samples. Which one do you prefer? Feel free to discus in the comments.

Meta Knight in HD

I found a fun pose for the model as a reference image:

Meta Knight by ~Brinstar on deviantART

Then I posed my Meta Knight model, which I found using this tutorial. Using Blender's new render engine, Cycles, I enhanced some of the materials. For example, the sword is actually reflective now. I also used Subdivision Surface to smooth the rough edges on the model.

Here is my result in HD. Click to view at full size: