What 3D editor tool should I use with Panda3D

I would recommend Blender. It is free, and used by many Panda3D users. It has several exporters available, the most mature of which is YABEE, which exports to .egg.

Blender can import .obj files, so this could be a reliable way to get these models into .egg format. The built-in obj2egg tool is very limited and does not support materials.