I just checked, I can open them without problem in blender, although you have to import them in, you can't just right click open the file with blender. I'm guessing it's the same for other 3D software, but I don't have much experience with anything other than blender. You wan't be able to open them in pep designer though, they're not meant for pep anyway, they are hi poly models (20k+ polys !) for 3D printing.
As for updates, I didn't do much except cutting a few pieces in foam here and there, but I'm doing an internship at the moment so not much time and on top of that the weather is too cold to spray my glue on the pieces outside. I will probably get coofunkcurly's shins and gauntlets soon, I'll try to have something to show by then.