I am using version 6 (MySQL Workbench Community (GPL) for Windows version 6.0.9 revision 11421 build 1170) on Windows Vista. I have no problem with the following options. Probably they fixed it since these guys got the problems three years ago.
/* first option */
SELECT ID
INTO @myvar
FROM party
WHERE Type = 'individual';
-- get the result
select @myvar;
/* second option */
SELECT @myvar:=ID
FROM party
WHERE Type = 'individual';
/* third option. The same as SQL Server does */
SELECT @myvar = ID FROM party WHERE Type = 'individual';
All option above give me a correct result.