I'm not sure if this answers the question but if if you right click on the "blob" icon in the field (when viewing the table) there is an option to "Open Value in Editor". One of the tabs lets you view the blob. This is in ver. 5.2.34
Under SQL Execution, check Treat BINARY/VARBINARY as nonbinary character string
Restart MySQL Workbench (you will not be prompted or informed of this requirement).
In MySQL Workbench 6.0+
Go to Edit > Preferences
Choose SQL Queries
Under Query Results, check Treat BINARY/VARBINARY as nonbinary character string
It's not mandatory to restart MySQL Workbench (you will not be prompted or informed of this requirement).*
With this setting you will be able to concatenate fields without getting blobs.
I think this applies to versions 5.2.22 and later and is the result of this MySQL bug.
Disclaimer: I don't know what the downside of this setting is - maybe when you are selecting BINARY/VARBINARY values you will see it as plain text which may be misleading and/or maybe it will hinder performance if they are large enough?
Work bench 6.3
Follow High scoring answer then use UNCOMPRESS()
(In short:
1. Go to Edit > Preferences
2. Choose SQL Editor
3. Under SQL Execution, check Treat BINARY/VARBINARY as nonbinary character string
4. Restart MySQL Workbench (you will not be prompted or informed of this requirement).)
Then
SELECT SUBSTRING(UNCOMPRESS(<COLUMN_NAME>),1,2500) FROM <Table_name>;
or
SELECT CAST(UNCOMPRESS(<COLUMN_NAME>) AS CHAR) FROM <Table_name>;
If you just put UNCOMPRESS(<COLUMN_NAME>) you can right click blob and click "Open Value in Editor".
NOTE: The previous answers here aren't particularly useful if the BLOB is an arbitrary sequence of bytes; e.g. BINARY(16) to store 128-bit GUID or md5 checksum.
In that case, there currently is no editor preference -- though I have submitted a feature request now -- see that request for more detailed explanation.
[Until/unless that feature request is implemented], the solution is HEX function in a query: SELECT HEX(mybinarycolumn) FROM mytable.
An alternative is to use phpMyAdmin instead of MySQL Workbench - there hex is shown by default.